High-Rate Capability Limitations, Plating Phenomena and Ablate Recycling in Laser-Structured Electrodes

The power performance (high-rate capability) of laser-structured electrodes for graphite and NMC 811 were evaluated at different electrolyte concentrations and electrode thicknesses. Line patterning was used to create microstructures via femtosecond laser ablation. The electrochemical power performance of structured electrodes at both increasing electrolyte salt concentration and increasing electrode thickness shows that the best power performances were attained at 1.0 M electrolyte salt concentration. Lithium plating observations and long-term cycling capacities show that cycle life is greatly determined by electrolyte salt concentrations across all electrodes. Results suggest that salt mobility in the electrolyte and concentrations are significant factors in improving the power performance in both unstructured and structured electrodes. Ablated material recycling attempts also reveal that graphite is able to retain its chemistry and can be directly recycled for electrochemical use.