Customized Vacuum Coating Systems

PVD Lithium Thin FoilLi Web Coaters and Coating ProcessingCustom Samples and Batch ProductionCoating Equipment Engineering

• Different substrates 1…20 microns thick Lithium coatings can be deposited in one pass onto thin metallic foils or thin metallized polymer films

• High Purity Li Since Lithium is deposited in high vacuum, it comes out in a “pure” state: vacuum deposited Lithium has minimal oxide layers. Lithium batteries benefit by high levels of purity.

• High surface activity Coating deposition conditions provide high Lithium surface activity, what is inaccessible for traditional rolling.

Battery withcommon Li

materialCurrent collector

Cathode

Electrolyte

Li Anode

Current collector

~ 8 micronsof Li in use

8–10

30–40

Battery withPVD coated Li

material

microns

microns

Lithium PVD coating advantages and performance capabilities

• Low cost PVD processing has an important feature: the less metal is required, the lower is the product cost. As a result, there is cost advantage with PVD coated Lithium in comparison with conventional rolling.

Battery separator material “Celgard” with 2.5 microns of Lithium (x2000).

00

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

Cont

ent

(at%

)

Sputtering time (min.)

XPS analysis of Li metal Comparison of vacuum deposited Li thin film and rolling Li foil

Vacuum depositted Li thin film

Vacuum depositted Li thin film

Commercially available rolled Li foil on the market

Commercially available rolled Li foil on the market

Courtesy of SUMITOMO: SEI technical Review, Number 61, January 2006

Comparison of batteries with conventional rolling and PVD coated Li

17 microns thick Copper foil with 19 microns of Lithium (x 500).

• Optimal thickness Lithium coating thickness could be selected correspondingly the battery chemistry. No excess Lithium!

Capabilities of PVD Lithium coating equipment in Sidrabe laboratory

• SIDRABE has research and development areas for Li coating investigation and samples manu-facturing under contracts with potential cus-tomers. We keep SIDRABE made two Labora-tory Roll-to-Roll Lithium coaters associated with Dry Room and web slit machine inside it. Coated material is transferred into the Glove box for packaging into sealed me tal-polymeric bags filled with Argon.

• Both web coaters are equipped with the processor drums, where coating deposition heat is trans-ferred through the gas gap (so-called “venting drums”, designed by SIDRABE). The web effective cooling allows to deposit thick layer in the single pass. At preliminary works execution we obtain actual information on design and process para-meters on coming production scale equipment.

• Sidrabe can steadily deposit up to 20 microns of continuous single-sided or double-sided Li on more than 8…10 microns thick metallic foil and up to 10 microns of Li on PP or PET films. In case of PET film it is necessary to deposit preliminary a metallic sub-layer to prevent Li interaction with polymer moisture.

150 mm Cu foil (Initial roll)

100 ± 2 mm

Li: δ ± 10 %, micron

100 ± 2 mm

A ± 0.1 mm

25 ± 1 mmA ± 1 mm

Possibility 1Middle slit material (w/o free copper edges)

Possibility 2Side slit material withcopper substrate edge

Double-side Li coated foilAn example of double-side Li coated foil and initial roll slit geometry

17 Krustpils Str.Riga, LV1073, LATVIA Tel: +371 67249-806Fax: +371 67139-506 E-mail: sidrabe@sidrabe.euhttp://www.sidrabe.com

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