Patent ID: 11876213
Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLC
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  C  Y | IPC C  H

Claim 14:
15. A method of making an electrode for an electrochemical cell that cycles lithium ions, the method comprising:
applying a protective coating to a silicon-based electrode precursor material, and lithiating the silicon-based electrode precursor material in a continuous process conducted in a reactor having a first reaction chamber and a second reaction chamber to form a lithiated electrode material comprising the protective coating,
wherein the protective coating is selected from the group consisting of: aluminum oxide (Al2O3), titanium dioxide (TiO2), silicon dioxide (SiO2), vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), zirconium dioxide (ZrO2), hafnium dioxide (HfO2), tin oxide (SnO2), zinc oxide (ZnO), lithium fluoride (LiF), aluminum fluoride (AlF3), aluminum oxyfluoride (AlFO), aluminum nitride (AlN), silicon nitride (SiN), and combinations thereof,
wherein the protective coating is applied to the silicon-based electrode precursor material in the first reaction chamber by an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process and the silicon-based electrode precursor material is subsequently lithiated in the second reaction chamber by a thermal evaporation process, and
wherein the first reaction chamber defines a plurality of deposition regions that each comprise a first zone to introduce an oxidant and a second zone to introduce one or more ALD precursors.