KR20210113893A - Li-battery and method of fabricating the same by surface plasmon resonance - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for manufacturing a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention includes the steps of: manufacturing a negative electrode including a transition metal oxide; forming metal nanoparticles on the surface of the negative electrode; and irradiating light to the metal nanoparticles to cause surface plasmon resonance.

Description

Lithium secondary battery using surface plasma resonance and manufacturing method thereof {Li-battery and method of fabricating the same by surface plasmon resonance}

The present invention relates to a lithium secondary battery and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly, to a lithium secondary battery having a transition metal oxide electrode and a manufacturing method thereof.

As technology development and demand for mobile devices increase, the demand for secondary batteries as an energy source is rapidly increasing. Among these secondary batteries, a lithium secondary battery having a high energy density and voltage, a long cycle life, and a low self-discharge rate has been commercialized and widely used. A lithium secondary battery has a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator interposed therebetween, and an electrode such as a positive electrode or a negative electrode is formed by applying, drying and rolling an electrode slurry including an electrode active material, a conductive material, a binder, and a solvent to an electrode current collector. is being manufactured. A typical example of a commercialized lithium secondary battery is to use LiCoO ₂ powder as a positive electrode active material and carbon powder as a negative electrode active material.

A conventional lithium secondary battery has a principle of storing electrical energy as chemical energy or converting chemical energy into electrical energy through the movement of charges generated in the process of lithium ions being inserted/deintercalated into an electrode material. In recent years, as the use of medium and large-sized batteries using such lithium secondary batteries is accelerated, performance improvement of lithium secondary batteries is most importantly required.

The performance improvement of lithium secondary batteries is closely related to the development of electrode active materials and improvement of physical properties, which are key elements. In order for a lithium secondary battery to have a large capacity and excellent cycle stability, the anode and cathode active materials used must have a crystal structure suitable for reacting with lithium and have excellent electrical properties. In particular, in the case of an anode active material, research on a new anode active material to replace the existing carbon-based material is being actively conducted.

Recently, CuO, which expresses capacity through a conversion reaction between metal/metal oxide, rather than an alloying reaction using Si, Ge, Sn, etc. that forms an alloy with lithium, or a conventional insertion/desorption process, Studies on transition metal oxides such as CoO, Fe ₂ O ₃ , NiO, MnO _{2 and the like are attracting attention.} However, in the case of these anode active materials, there are still problems to be solved, such as volume change during charging and discharging, aggregation between particles, and low electrical conductivity. In particular, low electrical conductivity is a major obstacle to rapid charging and discharging.

In order to improve the low electrical conductivity of the transition metal oxide electrode, methods for supplementing the low electrical conductivity by using doping or an additive have been proposed. However, this solution may cause an additional interface formation or an incidental chemical reaction within the electrode, so it is difficult to identify a clear correlation between the improvement of the secondary battery electrode, and it is difficult to see it as a general improvement method to be applied to other secondary battery electrodes.

The present invention was devised in recognition of the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a lithium secondary battery having improved electrical conductivity of a transition metal oxide electrode and a method for manufacturing the same.

A method for manufacturing a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention for solving the above technical problem includes preparing a negative electrode including a transition metal oxide; forming metal nanoparticles on the surface of the anode; and irradiating light to the metal nanoparticles to cause surface plasmon resonance.

The metal nanoparticles may be gold (Au) or silver (Ag).

The transition metal oxide may be Co ₃ O ₄ .

The method of forming the metal nanoparticles may be thermal vacuum deposition.

The step of irradiating the light to cause surface plasmon resonance may be irradiating light in the visible range.

The lithium secondary battery according to the present invention includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a separator, the negative electrode includes a transition metal oxide, and metal nanoparticles are formed on the surface of the negative electrode.

According to the present invention, since it is possible to achieve additional performance improvement through a simple post-treatment process through the formation of metal nanoparticles on the manufactured electrode and light irradiation, it is an improved method compared to the existing methods, and can be applied more widely and conveniently. .

According to the present invention, by inducing the LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance) effect on the transition metal oxide, the surface charge concentration is increased to reduce the charge transfer resistance at the electrolyte and electrode surface during the charging and discharging process of the secondary battery and accelerate the charge transfer. capacity can be increased.

In particular, in the present invention, _{by increasing the electrical conductivity of the transition metal oxide active material layer such as Co 3} O ₄ , ultimately, charge transfer between the electrolyte and the electrode interface is improved, thereby improving the capacity and lifespan of the secondary battery.

When a transition metal oxide is used as an anode active material, low electrical conductivity is an unavoidable characteristic. However, as suggested in the present invention, when silver or gold nanoparticles are formed by deposition or the like and exposed to light, it is possible to compensate by generating collective vibrations of electrons through surface plasmon resonance. Therefore, since the transition metal oxide having a high theoretical capacity through the conversion reaction activates an electrochemical reaction through surface plasmon resonance, a lithium secondary battery capable of high-capacity and high-speed charging and discharging can be provided.

The following drawings attached to this specification illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the present invention serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention is should not be construed as limited to
1 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention.
2 is a schematic view showing main components of a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention.
3 is a schematic diagram of _{the Co 3} O ₄ active material deposited with Ag nanoparticles for the explanation of the LSPR effect.
4 is a picture of the electrophoretic deposition setup used in the experiment.
5 is a schematic diagram of a thermal vacuum deposition method.
6 is a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of _{a Co 3} O ₄ electrode with or without Ag nanoparticles deposition.
7 is a graph showing the change in absorbance of the electrode according to the presence or absence of Ag deposition.
8 is a graph showing the change in the capacity of the secondary battery of the electrode according to the presence or absence of Ag deposition measured while irradiating light of 60 ^{mW/cm 2} using a photovoltaic simulator.
9 is a graph showing a change in capacity of a secondary battery according to whether or not light is irradiated to an Ag-deposited electrode.

Hereinafter, methods according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawings introduced below are provided as examples so that the spirit of the present invention can be sufficiently conveyed. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the drawings presented below and may be embodied in other forms. Unless otherwise defined in technical terms and scientific terms used in this specification, it is apparent that those of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains have the meaning commonly understood. In addition, in the following description and accompanying drawings, descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention will be omitted.

The movement of charges generated while driving the lithium secondary battery occurs at the interface between the electrode and the electrolyte. Therefore, the electrical properties of the surface of the electrode active material are the most important factor for easy charge exchange between the electrolyte and the electrode active material. In driving a lithium secondary battery using a transition metal oxide as an anode active material, improvement of the electron conductivity of the anode active material through an increase in electron concentration is an essential element enabling fast charging and discharging. The present inventors have arrived at the present invention after repeated research on a method for simply improving the electrical properties of an electrode active material.

1 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention. 2 is a schematic view showing main components of a lithium secondary battery according to the present invention.

1 and 2 , first, battery components such as a positive electrode 10 , a negative electrode 20 , a separator 30 , an electrolyte, and a battery case are prepared (step S1 ).

The positive electrode 10 may be prepared by applying, drying, and rolling a positive electrode active material slurry including a positive electrode active material, a conductive material, a binder, and a solvent to a positive electrode current collector. The positive active material is, for example, a lithium-based active material, and representative examples include LiCoO ₂ , LiNiO ₂ , LiMnO ₂ , LiMn ₂ O ₄ , LiFePO ₄ or Li _1+z Ni _1-xy Co _x M _y O ₂ (0≤x≤1 , 0≤y≤1, 0≤x+y≤1, 0≤z≤1, M is a metal such as Al, Sr, Mg, La, Mn) and the like) may be used. The positive electrode 10 may be made of lithium metal without a separate positive electrode current collector. The step of preparing the positive electrode 10 is not particularly limited and may be performed according to a known method.

The separator 30 is not particularly limited as long as it has a porous material. The separation membrane 30 is a porous polymer membrane, such as a porous polyolefin membrane, polyvinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene, polyvinylidene fluoride-trichloroethylene, polymethyl methacrylate, polyacrylonitrile, Polyvinylpyrrolidone, polyvinyl acetate, ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, polyethylene oxide, cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, cellulose acetate propionate, cyanoethyl pullulan, cyanoethyl polyvinyl alcohol, cyanoethyl cellulose , cyanoethyl sucrose, pullulan, carboxyl methyl cellulose, acrylonitrile styrene butadiene copolymer, polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate, polybutylene terephthalate, polyester, polyacetal, polyamide, polyether ether ketone, poly It may be made of ether sulfone, polyphenylene oxide, polyphenylene sulfide, polyethylene naphthalene, a non-woven fabric membrane, a membrane having a porous web structure, or a mixture thereof. Inorganic particles may be bound to one or both surfaces of the separation membrane 30 .

The electrolyte may include an organic solvent and a lithium salt as a representative electrolyte. The organic solvent is not limited as long as it can minimize decomposition due to oxidation reaction and the like during the charging and discharging process of the battery and exhibit desired properties, for example, it may be a cyclic carbonate, a linear carbonate, an ester, an ether or a ketone. These may be used alone, or two or more may be used in combination. Among the organic solvents, a carbonate-based organic solvent may be preferably used. Examples of the cyclic carbonate include ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC) and butylene carbonate (BC), and the linear carbonate includes dimethyl carbonate (DMC). ), diethyl carbonate (DEC), dipropyl carbonate (DPC), ethylmethyl carbonate (EMC), methylpropyl carbonate (MPC) and ethylpropyl carbonate (EPC) are representative. Lithium salt is LiPF ₆ , LiAsF ₆ , LiCF ₃ SO ₃ , LiN(CF ₃ SO ₂ ) ₂ , LiBF ₄ , LiBF ₆ , LiSbF ₆ , LiN(C ₂ F5SO ₂ ) ₂ , LiAlO ₄ , LiAlCl ₄ , LiSO ₃ CF ₃ and LiClO ₄ Lithium salts commonly used in the electrolyte of a lithium secondary battery may be used without limitation, and these may be used alone, or two or more kinds may be used in combination. The step of preparing such an electrolyte is not particularly limited and may be performed according to a known method.

The battery case may be a pouch made of an aluminum laminate sheet or a metal can. The step of preparing such a battery case is not particularly limited and may be performed according to a known method.

The cathode 20 includes a transition metal oxide. For example, it can be prepared by forming a transition metal oxide active material layer on the negative electrode current collector. Here, the negative electrode current collector may be copper. Alternatively, the negative electrode current collector may be a stainless steel, aluminum, nickel, titanium, copper or stainless steel surface treated with carbon, nickel, titanium, silver, or the like, and an aluminum-cadmium alloy may be used. . It may be made of only the transition metal oxide itself without an anode current collector. For example, the transition metal oxide may be Co ₃ O ₄ .

The method of forming the transition metal oxide active material layer is a method of forming a slurry or paste containing transition metal oxide particles, applying it and drying it, a method of forming by electrophoretic deposition in a solution containing transition metal oxide nanoparticles, a precursor A method of forming a material first and then heat-treating it to change it into a transition metal oxide is possible.

When a transition metal oxide is used as an anode active material, low electrical conductivity is an unavoidable characteristic. In the present invention, in particular, with respect to the negative electrode 20 containing such a transition metal oxide, the step (S2) of forming metal nanoparticles (25) on the surface of the negative electrode 20 and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) by irradiating light To further include a step (S3) for causing this to occur, the electrical conductivity problem is solved.

The metal of the metal nanoparticles 25 may be gold (Au) or silver (Ag). The size of the metal nanoparticles 25 is preferably 100 nm or less, and may be approximately 10 nm or less. A method of forming the metal nanoparticles 25 may be deposition. It may in particular be thermal vacuum deposition. The step (S3) of irradiating light to cause surface plasmon resonance may be performed before or during assembly (S4). The light may be visible light. 1 shows an example carried out before assembly. Before assembling, for example, in the process of assembling the secondary battery in a glove box filled with an inert gas, means before the electrode comes into contact with the electrolyte.

As suggested in the present invention, when metal nanoparticles 25 such as silver or gold are covered on the surface of the cathode 20 and exposed to light, collective vibration of electrons can be generated through surface plasmon resonance.

A specific assembly process may be performed in the order of placing the negative electrode 20 on the battery case, placing the separator 30 and the positive electrode 10 thereon in this order, then injecting the electrolyte and sealing the battery case. It is also possible to put the negative electrode 20 , the separator 30 , and the positive electrode 10 into a battery case, seal only a part of the battery case, and then inject an electrolyte to seal the rest of the battery case.

3 is a schematic diagram of _{the Co 3} O ₄ active material deposited with Ag nanoparticles for the explanation of the LSPR effect. With reference to this, the LSPR effect used in the present invention will be described in more detail.

In the present invention, by applying the LSPR effect to a lithium secondary battery, a method for effectively increasing specific capacity through a simple metal nanoparticle deposition process is proposed. For example, the present invention proposes that the secondary battery performance can be improved through a relatively simple method of vacuum-depositing Ag nanoparticles on a _{Co 3} O _{4 electrode to generate an LSPR phenomenon.}

When light is irradiated onto a metal surface, an interaction between the metal's free electrons and an electromagnetic field occurs. The collective vibrational waves induced as a result of the interaction of electrons with light are called surface plasmons. In particular, the resonance of surface plasmon generated in nano-scale metal structures is called localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Therefore, the LSPR effect used in the present invention is a nano-sized metal (Ag in FIG. 3) having a negative dielectric constant of light (energy hν) of a specific wavelength from the outside and a dielectric having a positive dielectric constant (Co in FIG. 3) ₃ O ₄ ) refers to the collective vibration of ^{conduction band electrons (e −} ) present on the metal surface when incident along the interface. This phenomenon occurs because when the size of the nanostructure is much smaller than the wavelength of the incident wave, plasmons do not move and the collective vibration of electrons occurs in the structure. In particular, nanoparticles made of noble metals such as Au and Ag strongly resonate with visible light. Through this, an exciton is generated by the locally generated electric field and light absorption. In the present invention, the movement of lithium ions at the electrode interface is promoted by using a locally vibrating electric field, and excitons generated through light absorption are transferred to the transition metal oxide, for example, Co ₃ O ₄ electrode interface to reduce the surface charge concentration. seek to promote Through this, it is possible to help improve the capacity of the secondary battery by facilitating the insertion/desorption process of lithium ions that are ultimately generated in the lithium secondary battery.

In a lithium secondary battery, electrons move due to the difference in electrochemical potential energy between the negative electrode and the positive electrode, and lithium ions are inserted/desorbed into the electrode material at the same time. is a device that In this case, the easier the electrons move, the faster the energy can be stored. In order to facilitate recombination with lithium ions by entering the electrode as the electrons move, not only the electrical conductivity of the electrode itself but also the interface of the electrode has an important effect. Therefore, if the free electrons on the metal surface are vibrated by the LSPR effect as suggested in the present invention, electrons at the transition metal oxide interface will be activated, and thus the electrochemical reactivity will be improved.

High specific capacity and stability are the most important factors in evaluating the performance of a lithium secondary battery. _{Co 3} O ₄ , one of the transition metal oxides, has a high theoretical capacity of 890 mAh/g or more, so it is a material that is being actively studied as an electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries. However, due to the inherent low electrical conductivity of the transition metal oxide, there is a limit in fully realizing the capacity at a high charge/discharge rate. According to the present invention, _{if the LSPR effect is caused on Co 3} O ₄ , the charge concentration on the surface can be promoted, and through this, the lithium ion insertion/desorption process ultimately generated in the lithium secondary battery is facilitated, thereby improving the capacity of the secondary battery. can help

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the capacity and lifespan of the secondary battery by ultimately improving the charge transfer between the electrolyte and the electrode interface by improving the surface charge concentration. As described above, the present invention can be expected to improve the performance of the secondary battery only by adding simple processes such as metal nanoparticle formation and light irradiation as a post-treatment technique for lithium secondary battery electrodes.

Hereinafter, an experimental example in which a negative electrode according to the present invention was manufactured and a lithium secondary battery was manufactured using the negative electrode and performance was tested. Although the present invention may be described in more detail by way of experimental examples, these experimental examples are merely illustrative of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

Experimental example

A battery was prepared and characteristics evaluated using _{a Co 3} O ₄ electrode fabricated on a copper foil as a negative electrode through an electrophoretic deposition method. The sample according to the present invention was irradiated with visible light after deposition of Ag nanoparticles on _{Co 3} O _{4 (Sample #1).} A _{comparative sample made of only Co 3} O ₄ and not deposited with Ag nanoparticles was also prepared (Sample #2).

As a transition metal oxide material, Co ₃ O ₄ oxidized with ZIF-67 was used, and in order to clarify that the performance improvement of the secondary battery is the effect of surface plasmon resonance, it was manufactured through electrophoretic deposition without a conductive material or binder. A photograph of the electrophoretic deposition setup 100 used in the experiment is shown in FIG. 4 .

A working solution 160 was prepared by dispersing ZIF-67 powder in hexane at a concentration of 2 mg/ml through an electrophoretic deposition method. The working solution 160 was placed in the beaker 150 of FIG. 3 , and copper foil was fixed between two metal rods to perform electrophoretic deposition. The two metal rods were electrically insulated with 2 mm thick Teflon spacers. After the installed metal rod was immersed in the working solution 160, it was deposited at 500 V for 90 seconds. After oxidation in a furnace (furnace) 350 ℃ 30 minutes to form a Co ₃ O ₄ electrode.

5 is a schematic diagram of a thermal vacuum deposition method.

After _{forming the Co 3} O ₄ electrode, as shown in the schematic diagram in FIG. 5 , Ag nanoparticles were deposited by thermal vacuum deposition at a rate of 2 Å/s for 15 seconds to prepare Sample #1. The thermal vacuum deposition method is vaporized by applying heat to the Ag metal source 210 in a high vacuum of ^{10 -5} _{torr or less in the vacuum chamber 200, and then a substrate (Co 3} O ₄ electrode, 220 in this experimental example) at a relatively low temperature. ) is a deposition method made by condensing in

_{Ag nanoparticles were deposited on the Co 3} O ₄ electrode material through thermal vacuum deposition, and then SEM images were taken. 6 is a SEM image of _{the Co 3} O ₄ electrode according to the presence or absence of Ag nanoparticles deposition. 6 (a) is a photograph of Co ₃ O ₄ , ie, sample #2, on which Ag nanoparticles are not deposited, and (b) is a photograph of Co ₃ O ₄ , ie, sample #1 on which Ag nanoparticles are deposited. Comparing (a) and (b) of FIG. 6 , in the case of (b), it can be seen that _{Ag nanoparticles of about 10 nm are evenly distributed on the Co 3} O _{4 electrode.}

7 is a graph showing the change in absorbance of the electrode according to the presence or absence of Ag deposition. In the graph, the horizontal axis indicates wavelength (nm) and the vertical axis indicates absorption (a.u.).

As shown in FIG. 7, absorption spectra of light in a wavelength range of 900 nm to 200 nm were measured according to the presence or absence of deposition of Ag nanoparticles. As compared to Sample #2 without Ag nanoparticles, it can be seen that in the case of Sample #1 on which Ag nanoparticles were deposited, the absorbance was significantly increased in the visible light region. In addition, a peak due to the SPR effect was observed near 473 nm. Through this, it was confirmed that the SPR effect can be induced by irradiating light in the visible region.

In order to check the performance improvement of the secondary battery due to the LSPR effect, an electrochemical cell capable of driving the secondary battery while irradiating light was constructed. An electrochemical cell was manufactured by fixing the _{Co 3} O ₄ electrode and the lithium coin prepared in the previous experimental example using an alligator inside the vial. When driving the cell, light was irradiated with an intensity of ^{60 mW/cm 2 through a photovoltaic simulator.} Conditions of light irradiation may be different depending on the electrode active material used, and may be optimized based on the degree to which the electrochemical reactivity of _{Co 3} O _{4 used is improved.}

8 is a graph showing the change in the capacity of the secondary battery of the electrode according to the presence or absence of Ag deposition, measured while irradiating light of 60 ^{mW/cm 2} using a photovoltaic simulator. In the graph, the horizontal axis indicates the number of charge/discharge cycles and the vertical axis indicates specific capacity (mAh/g).

Using the electrochemical cells each having the above-described sample #1 and sample #2, light of 60 mW/cm ² intensity is applied to the photovoltaic simulator and the capacity of the secondary battery is measured as shown in FIG. 8 . Under the 1C-rate current load of the secondary battery with Sample #1 and the secondary battery with Sample #2, the discharge capacities of the second cycle were measured to be 886 mAh/g and 699 mAh/g, respectively, so that Sample #1 is Sample# It was confirmed that the capacity improvement of 187 mAh / g compared to 2 . It can be seen that the same trend appears even at a current load of 5C-rate, which is 5 times higher. Although an increase in capacity due to alloying between lithium and Ag particles can be suspected, the weight of deposited Ag (deposition) through ^{the area of the electrode (1.78 cm 2} ), deposition thickness (3 nm), and theoretical density (10.5 g/cm ^{2 )} Since the weight = electrode area × deposition thickness × theoretical density) is 5.6 μg, the capacity is calculated as 1.66 μAh even when the alloying of _{AgLi 12 is considered.} do.

9 is a graph showing a change in capacity of a secondary battery according to whether or not light is irradiated to an Ag-deposited electrode. In the graph, the horizontal axis represents the number of charge/discharge cycles and the vertical axis represents specific capacity (mAh/g).

In order to check whether a change in the capacity of the secondary battery due to light occurs, the capacity of the secondary battery having the electrode of Sample #1 without light irradiation and the capacity of the secondary battery having the electrode of Sample #1 in the irradiated state are measured with a photovoltaic simulator. compared. The first discharge capacity of the specimen irradiated with light was 178 mAh/g, and the first discharge capacity of the specimen not irradiated with light was 77 mAh/g. Judging from this, it is judged that the activation of the electrochemical reaction by the LSPR effect has occurred.

The present invention proposes to improve the surface charge concentration by the LSPR effect by forming metal nanoparticles and irradiating the transition metal oxide with light. Light irradiation may be performed during or after assembly of the secondary battery. Through this, it is possible to ultimately improve the charge transfer between the electrolyte and the electrode interface, thereby improving the capacity and lifespan of the secondary battery. In addition, it is possible to provide a lithium secondary battery having improved rapid charge/discharge characteristics by improving the electrical conductivity of the electrode active material.

In the above, the present invention has been illustrated and described with reference to specific preferred embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and those of ordinary skill in the art to which the invention pertains within the scope not departing from the spirit of the present invention have Various changes and modifications will be possible by the person.

10: positive electrode
20: cathode
25: metal nanoparticles
30: separator

Claims (8)

Preparing an anode including a transition metal oxide;
forming metal nanoparticles on the surface of the anode; and
and irradiating light to the metal nanoparticles to cause surface plasmon resonance to occur. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal nanoparticles are gold (Au) or silver (Ag). The method of claim 1 , wherein the transition metal oxide is Co ₃ O ₄ . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method for forming the metal nanoparticles is thermal vacuum deposition. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of irradiating the light to cause surface plasmon resonance is irradiating light in the visible range. including a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a separator;
The cathode comprises a transition metal oxide,
A lithium secondary battery, characterized in that the metal nanoparticles are formed on the surface of the negative electrode. The lithium secondary battery according to claim 6, wherein the metal nanoparticles are gold (Au) or silver (Ag). The lithium secondary battery according to claim 6, wherein the transition metal oxide is Co ₃ O _{4 .}

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