An Effective Mixing for Lithium Ion Battery Slurries

Coating slurries for making anodes and cathodes of lithium batteries contain a large percentage of solid particles of different chemicals, sizes and shapes in highly viscous media. A thorough mixing of these slurries poses a major challenge in the battery manufacturing process. Several types of mixing devices and mixing methods were examined. The conventional turbine stirrers or ball mill mixers could be adequately used for the preparation of anode slurries, but not suitable for cathode slurries. In this study, a newly three-dimensional mixer, in conjunction with a multi-stage mixing sequence was proposed. The mixing effectiveness was examined by means of rheological measurements and flow visualization techniques. Preliminary electrical performance results indicated that the battery obtained using the 3D mixing device with a multi-stage mixing sequence was more efficient to those obtained from conventional methods.