Electrochemical Performance of Thick-Film Li(Ni$_{0.6}$Mn$_{0.2}$Co$_{0.2}$)O$_{2}$ Cathode with Hierarchic Structures and Laser Ablation

The electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries is directly influenced by type of active material as well as its morphology. In order to evaluate the impact of particle morphology in thick-films electrodes, Li(Ni0.6Mn0.2Co0.2)O2 (NMC 622) cathodes with bi-layer structure consisted of two different particle sizes were manufactured and electrochemically characterized in coin cells design. The hierarchical thick-film electrodes were generated by multiple casting using NMC 622 (TA) with small particle size of 6.7 µm and NMC 622 (BA) with large particle size of 12.8 µm. Besides, reference electrodes with one type of active material as well as with two type of materials established during mixing process (BT) are manufactured. The total film thickness of all hierarchical composite electrodes were kept constant at 150 µm, while the thicknesses of TA and BA are set at 1:2, 1:1 ,and 2:1. Meanwhile, three kinds of thin-film cathodes with 70 µm are applied to represent the state-of-the-art approach. Subsequently, ultrafast laser ablation was ap-plied to generate groove structures inside the electrodes. The results demonstrate that cells with thin-film or thick-film cathode only containing TA, cells with bilayer electrode containing TBA 1:2, and cells with laser structured electrodes show higher capacity at C/2 to 5C, respectively.