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 0:
1. A method of making a negative electrode for an electrochemical cell that cycles lithium ions, the method comprising:
applying a protective coating via an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process onto a silicon-based negative electrode precursor material in a first reaction chamber of a reactor, 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; and then
transferring the silicon-based negative electrode precursor material into a second reaction chamber of the reactor and lithiating the silicon-based negative electrode precursor material by a thermal evaporation process to form a negative electrode material comprising the protective coating and a lithium-containing coating,
wherein applying the protective coating to the silicon-based negative electrode precursor material and lithiating the silicon-based negative electrode precursor material are performed in a continuous process respectively in the first reaction chamber and the second reaction chamber of the reactor.