Ilika Technologies Limited

Owain Clark

Brian Elliott Hayden

Louise Turner

Thomas Risbridger

Thomas Foley

William Richardson

Laura Mary Perkins

Samuel Guerin

Kyriakos Giagloglou

Gianfranco Aresta

Robert Noble

Patrick Casey

Jean-Philippe Soulié

Sara Aghdaei

A method is provided for fabricating a component material for a battery cell. The method comprises the steps of: providing a partially-fabricated battery cell, the partially-fabricated battery cell comprising a substrate having a planar deposition surface consisting of a first face of the substrate and a first battery component layer provided on the planar deposition surface, the substrate having a plurality of further surfaces, the planar deposition surface and the plurality of further surfaces defining the body of the substrate therebetween; wherein: the first battery component layer contains charge-carrying metal species and has an exposed surface; one or more electrically conductive or semi-conductive pathways extend through at least a portion of the substrate, each of the one or more pathways connecting the planar deposition surface to one of the plurality of further surfaces; and the partially-fabricated battery cell is held in position within a deposition chamber by a holding structure and each site of connection between one of the one or more pathways and the holding structure is electrically insulating; the method further comprising the step of depositing a second battery component layer on the first battery component layer, wherein the depositing comprises forming a plasma within the deposition chamber.

Method of fabricating a component material for a battery cell

A method of processing a stack of layers to provide a stack of discrete layer elements, comprises the steps of: providing a stack of layers comprising: #a first layer () provided by a first material; #a third layer () provided by a solid electrolyte; and #a second layer () located between the first and third layers, the second layer having a thickness of at least 500 nm and being provided by a second material comprising at least 95 atomic % amorphous silicon; removing a through-thickness portion of the first layer () to form a first discrete layer element () provided by the first material; removing a through-thickness portion of the second layer () to form a second discrete layer element () provided by the second material, the second discrete layer element being located between the first discrete layer element () and the solid electrolyte; and etching the third layer () using the second discrete layer element () as an etching mask, to form a third discrete layer element () provided by the solid electrolyte; wherein the first, second and third discrete layer elements provide the stack of discrete layer elements.

Method of processing layered structures

Provided is a composition comprising: (a)a principal phase that is provided by a layered mixed metal oxide having a rocksalt structure belonging to the R-3m space group; the layered mixed metal oxide comprising the following component elements: 45 to 55 atomic % lithium; 20 to 55 atomic % of one or more transition metals selected from the group consisting of chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt, and combinations thereof; and 0 to 25 atomic % of one or more additional dopant elements selected from the group consisting of: magnesium, calcium, strontium, titanium, zirconium, vanadium, copper, ruthenium, zinc, molybdenum, boron, aluminium, gallium, tin, lead, bismuth, lanthanum, cerium, gadolinium and europium; wherein said atomic % is expressed as a % of total atoms of said layered oxide, excluding oxygen; (b)a minor phase that is provided by a metal oxide that does not have the crystal structure of the layered mixed metal oxide, the minor phase comprising one or more of the transition metals contained in the layered mixed metal oxide, the transition metals being selected from the group consisting of chromium, manganese, iron, nickel, and cobalt. Methods of making the composition and electrodes and cells, especially solid-state batteries, containing the composition are also provided. The rough morphology of the crystals confers advantages compared with smoother crystals of similar chemical composition, particularly in solid-state batteries.

Composition, methods for its production, and its use

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Southampton, United Kingdom

Owain Clark