Immediately after coating the electrodes are dried. This is done with convective air dryers on a continuous process. The solvents are recovered from this process. Infrared technology is used as a booster on Anode lines.
Challenges
- Centre to edge homogeneity of drying process
- Recovering solvent
- Avoiding cracking
As the energy used in the drying and solvent recovery process is such a significant portion of the total required in cell production there is a significant effort [1] to look at alternatives:
- convection
- infrared
- laser
- microwave
- joule
Final Drying
Before cell assembly the electrodes are dried again to remove all solvent content and to reduce free water ppm prior to the final processes before assembling the cell.
References
- Max-Wolfram von Horstig, Alexander Schoo, Thomas Loellhoeffel, Julian K. Mayer, Arno Kwade, A Perspective on Innovative Drying Methods for Energy-Efficient Solvent-Based Production of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrodes, Energy Technology, Wiley
See also: Coating, Calendering