JP2006190531A - Method for manufacturing battery electrode - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method of a battery electrode for manufacturing a highly reliable and thin rectangular sealed secondary battery against expansion and contraction of an electrode material due to charge / discharge.
A process for producing a positive electrode 31 by applying a paste for forming a positive electrode active material 31a to a positive electrode current collector 31b, and a negative electrode by applying a paste for forming a negative electrode active material 32a to a negative electrode current collector 32b. There are a step of manufacturing the electrode 32, a step of manufacturing the laminated sheet 11 by disposing the separator 33 between the positive electrode 31 and the negative electrode 32, and a periodic structure having a wedge shape as one unit on both surfaces of the laminated sheet 11. The method of manufacturing a battery electrode includes a step of pressurizing and transferring a continuous wedge shape that is repeated. In the step of pressurizing and transferring the continuous wedge shape, an upper mold block 12 having a continuous wedge shape surface and a lower block The laminated sheet 11 is sandwiched between the mold blocks 13 and pressed.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a battery electrode used in a sealed secondary battery, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a battery electrode suitable for a thin and square sealed secondary battery.

  As power sources for small electronic devices, small and large capacity sealed secondary batteries are used in mobile phones, digital cameras, and the like. Conventionally, a secondary battery in which an electrode obtained by winding a belt-like positive electrode and a negative electrode through a separator is accommodated in a rectangular can has been widely used. As an example, FIG. 4 shows an electrode having a spiral laminated structure wound from the inside to the outside. FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional view thereof, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of the belt-like laminated sheet. The electrode winding body of FIG. 4 includes a strip-shaped positive electrode 41 produced by applying a positive electrode active material 41a to both surfaces of a positive electrode current collector 41b, two separators 43a and 43b stacked on both sides thereof, A strip-shaped negative electrode 42 produced by applying the negative electrode active material 42a to both surfaces of the negative electrode current collector 42b is laminated on one separator 43b side to produce a laminated sheet, and further wound to obtain a wound body. Electrode. The electrode winding body is housed in a can case, and a square and thin sealed secondary battery as shown in FIG. 5 is manufactured. FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view thereof, in which 51 is an electrode winding body, 52 is a rectangular can case, and 53 is an electrolytic solution. Such a structure is as shown in Patent Document 1 and the like.

JP 2001-266927 A

  A secondary battery using a wound electrode according to the prior art is known as a battery having a high volumetric efficiency. On the other hand, however, when trying to obtain a thin and square sealed secondary battery, swelling of the can case during charging is a problem. This will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the width direction of the can case is the x direction, and the thickness direction is the y direction. In addition, in FIG. 5, in order to avoid complication, it showed typically, However, A winding body of about 20 layers is actually used. At that time, for example, even if there is an expansion of 0.02 mm per layer at the time of charging, an expansion close to 1 mm occurs on both sides as a whole. At that time, the structure of the can case has a dimension with a small margin in the y direction and a relatively large dimension in the x direction because of a demand for thinning. As a result, at the time of charging, a force to inflate the central portion of the can case 52 works, which is not preferable in terms of reliability.

  In this situation, an object of the present invention is to provide a battery electrode manufacturing method for manufacturing a rectangular and thin sealed secondary battery that is highly reliable with respect to expansion and contraction of an electrode material due to charge and discharge. is there.

  In the present invention, the belt-like positive electrode and the negative electrode laminated via a separator are folded into a case and the expansion during charging is limited to almost one direction. An electrode manufacturing method is provided.

  The battery electrode manufacturing method of the present invention comprises a step of forming a positive electrode active material layer on a sheet-like positive electrode current collector to produce a positive electrode, and a step of forming a negative electrode active material on a sheet-like negative electrode current collector. A step of producing a negative electrode, a step of producing a laminated sheet by arranging a sheet-like separator between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and a periodic structure having a wedge shape as one unit on both sides of the laminated sheet And pressurizing and transferring a continuous wedge shape that is repeated.

  In the step of pressure-transferring the continuous wedge shape, the laminated sheet is preferably sandwiched between two mold blocks having a continuous wedge-shaped surface.

  In the step of pressurizing and transferring the continuous wedge shape, the continuous wedge shape may be formed by passing the laminated sheet through a meshing portion of two gears and applying pressure of the gears.

  After the step of pressure-transferring the continuous wedge shape, it is preferable to include a step of reducing the angle of the front end of the wedge shape by applying pressure so as to compress the length of the continuous sheet in the longitudinal direction.

  After the step of reducing the angle of the wedge-shaped tip, the distortion inside the electrode may be removed by heat treatment in an inert atmosphere.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a process for producing a zigzag folded electrode, and when the electrode is accommodated in a rectangular and thin case, the expansion direction during charging can be substantially limited to the width direction of the case. It is possible to prevent the case from expanding in the thickness direction which has been reduced in thickness, and a highly reliable sealed secondary battery can be obtained.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1A and 1B show a method for producing a zigzag folded electrode according to the present invention. FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view showing a part of a laminated sheet, FIG. (C) is a schematic diagram showing a laminated sheet having a continuous wedge shape pressed and transferred, and FIG. 1 (d) is a schematic diagram showing a zigzag folded electrode.

First, a method for producing the laminated sheet 11 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1A, the laminated sheet 11 is obtained by laminating a belt-like sheet of a negative electrode 32 on a belt-like sheet of a positive electrode 31 via a separator 33. The positive electrode 31 is a positive electrode current collector made of aluminum foil. 31b is formed by applying a paste for forming a positive electrode active material 31a containing LiMnO ₂ , the separator 33 is made of a porous polypropylene film, and the negative electrode 32 is formed of a coke-type negative electrode active material on a copper foil negative electrode current collector 32b. It is produced by applying a paste for forming the substance 32a.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 1B, the laminated sheet 11 is sandwiched between the upper mold block 12 and the lower mold block 13 that are arranged so that the continuous wedge shape is engaged, and the pressure is applied in the vertical direction to form a continuous wedge shape. Is transferred to the laminated sheet 11 to produce the shape of FIG. Next, pressure is applied with two flat blocks from the left and right directions to obtain an acute wedge shape as shown in FIG. 1D, the entire length is compressed, and a zigzag folded electrode is obtained. In this process, the optimum wedge angle of the continuous wedge shape in FIG. 1 (c) may be selected so as not to finally leave excessive distortion in relation to the compression stroke by the subsequent flat plate block.

  A part of the zigzag folded electrode produced in this way is shown in a schematic cross-sectional view as shown in FIG. 3A, in which 31b is a positive electrode current collector, 31a is a positive electrode active material, 33 is a separator, and 32a is a negative electrode. An active material 32b is a negative electrode current collector.

Next, the fabricated zigzag electrode is heat-treated at 200 ° C. for 30 minutes in an inert atmosphere using N ₂ gas, and the active material and current collection inside the electrode are applied by pressurization with the upper and lower blocks or two flat plate blocks. Removed excessive strain accumulated in the vicinity of the body. At this time, even if the heat treatment temperature is 160 ° C., if the heat treatment time is lengthened, the effect of removing distortion can be confirmed, but the process time becomes long, so that it is not preferable to be less than 160 ° C. Moreover, when it exceeds 240 degreeC, modification | denaturation of an active material will occur and it is not preferable. In the pressurized state with the flat plate block, the temperature may be raised in an inert atmosphere, and then the applied pressure may be released and heat treatment for removing strain may be performed.

  Next, this zigzag folded electrode is housed in a can case together with an electrolytic solution in which tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate is dissolved in propylene carbonate at a concentration of 1 mol / L. The arrangement state at this time is shown in FIG. 3B as a perspective view with a part of the can case removed. The lid portion of the can case was sealed by laser welding to form a sealed structure, and a lithium ion secondary battery having a size of 34 × 40 × 5 mm was produced. By accommodating the zigzag folded electrode 34 in such an arrangement, the expansion of the electrode during charging is substantially limited to the x direction of FIG. 3B, and the expansion of the electrode in the y direction of the can case 35 is a unit of the laminated sheet. It is only a layer and is small enough to be ignored. As a result, the center portion of the upper surface or the lower surface of the can case 35 does not swell due to the expansion of the electrode material during charging. At the same time, it was possible to improve the reliability by eliminating the stress applied to the electrode from the can case accompanying the expansion and contraction of the electrode material due to charge and discharge.

  Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a state of continuous wedge-shaped transfer by a gear according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the laminated sheet is deformed so as to transfer the continuous wedge shape through the laminated sheet 11 having the structure shown in FIG. 1A between the meshed upper gear 22 and lower gear 23. At this time, the shape obtained was the same as in FIG. 1C, and in the subsequent steps, a zigzag folded electrode was produced by the same steps as in the above embodiment. Using the electrode, a thin and square sealed lithium ion secondary battery was produced. As a result, the can case can be prevented from bulging during charging.

  According to the present embodiment, continuous wedge-shaped transfer is possible regardless of the length of the laminated sheet. Further, in order to reduce the distortion after the transfer of the continuous wedge shape, it is possible to adjust the distance between the center axes of the upper gear 22 and the lower gear 23 and to adjust the rotational torque. The compression stroke by the flat plate block is more important, and it is important not to give excessive distortion to the wedge-shaped tip portion (folded portion) in the continuous wedge-shaped transfer by the gear.

  As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, a laminated sheet in which a positive electrode and a negative electrode prepared by applying a paste for forming an electrode active material on one surface of a sheet-like electrode current collector are stacked with a separator interposed therebetween. Although the method for producing a zigzag folded electrode has been described, the present invention can be applied to producing a zigzag folded electrode from a flat laminated sheet regardless of the laminated structure of the belt-like laminated sheet.

The figure which shows the manufacturing method of the battery electrode of one embodiment of this invention, FIG. 1 (a) is sectional drawing which shows a part of lamination sheet, FIG.1 (b) is sectional drawing which shows a mode that a pressure transfer is performed FIG. 1C is a schematic view showing a laminated sheet that has been pressed and transferred with a continuous wedge shape, and FIG. 1D is a schematic view showing a zigzag folded electrode. The schematic diagram which shows the mode of the transfer of the continuous wedge shape by the gearwheel in other embodiment of this invention. FIG. 3 (a) is a sectional view showing a part of the zigzag folding electrode according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 (b) shows the zigzag folding electrode housed in the can case. Perspective view. The conventional spiral electrode is shown, FIG. 4 (a) is the typical sectional drawing, FIG.4 (b) is sectional drawing which shows a part of lamination sheet. The typical sectional view showing the prismatic secondary battery using the conventional winding type electrode.

Explanation of symbols

11 Laminated sheet
12 Upper mold block 13 Lower mold block 22 Upper gear 23 Lower gear 31, 41 Positive electrode 31a, 41a Positive electrode active material
31b, 41b Positive electrode current collectors 32, 42 Negative electrode electrodes 32a, 42a Negative electrode active materials 32b, 42b Negative electrode current collectors 33, 43a, 43b Separator 34 Sputtered electrodes 35, 52 Can case 53 Electrolyte

Claims (5)

  Forming a positive electrode active material layer by forming a positive electrode active material layer on a sheet-like positive electrode current collector; forming a negative electrode active material layer by forming a negative electrode active material layer on a sheet-like negative electrode current collector; A process of producing a laminated sheet by placing a sheet-like separator between the electrode and the negative electrode, and a continuous wedge shape formed by repeating a periodic structure having a wedge shape as one unit on both surfaces of the laminated sheet A process for producing the battery electrode.   The method for producing a battery electrode according to claim 1, wherein in the step of pressure-transferring the continuous wedge shape, the laminated sheet is pressed between two mold blocks having a continuous wedge-shaped surface. .   2. The battery according to claim 1, wherein, in the step of pressure-transferring the continuous wedge shape, the continuous sheet is formed by passing the laminated sheet through a meshing portion of two gears and applying pressure of the gears. Manufacturing method for an automobile.   The method further comprises, after the step of pressure-transferring the continuous wedge shape, pressing the length of the continuous sheet in the longitudinal direction so as to reduce the angle of the front end of the wedge shape. Item 4. A method for producing a battery electrode according to Item 2 or 3.   5. The method for producing a battery electrode according to claim 4, further comprising a step of removing strain inside the electrode by a heat treatment in an inert atmosphere after the step of reducing the angle of the wedge-shaped tip.

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