Project R-12205

Cooperation agreement between Hasselt University and VITO concerning the PhD of Nguyen Thanh Thao Tu (Research)

Global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions may be the biggest problem for society today. In order to avoid CO2 emissions in transport and mobility, electrification of cars will play an important role. Over the past years the market of electrical vehicles (EV) have gained traction and will accelerate enormously over the next decade. At the heart of every EV lies the battery. Performance, safety and cost of the battery are key in wide scale application of electric mobility. Although Li-ion battery cars run on our roads, they have some limitations such as limited range and low charge rate. There is ongoing research in both improving the current generation Li-ion batteries as well as the development of next generation batteries such as solid state (generation 4) and Li-S (generation 5). Improved shaping techniques using additive manufacturing can offer benefits for all generations of batteries as it can be used to produce batteries with higher performance or special designs. Thick electrodes are difficult to make using conventional electrode production techniques and have often very poor performance compared to thin film batteries due to diffusion limitations. 3D printing enables the production of porous thick electrodes which could decrease the amount of process steps needed for manufacturing and reduce the amount of inert material in the battery leading to increased capacity. This PhD, which is a collaboration between UHasselt and VITO within EnergyVille, will explore the potential of porous 3D structured anode and cathode materials using micro-extrusion technology. The optimization of 3D printing paste formulation and 3D shape of electrodes for Li-ion batteries will be investigated in the first part of the research. In the second part, the upscaling to larger battery cells and 3D electrodes for next generation batteries will be studied. Combining knowledge in 3D printing (VITO) with advanced battery materials research (UHasselt) will help to make fast progress in this field.

01 December 2021 - 30 November 2026