Patent Description:
<CIT> discloses a casing for a lithium bipolar electrochemical battery including a bipolar element. The casing includes a composite material including a matrix and at least one porous reinforcement, the matrix of which includes at least one hardened polymer impregnating the at least one porous reinforcement, wherein the at least one porous reinforcement and the at least one hardened polymer encase the bipolar element and maintain a determined pressure on either side of the bipolar element to maintain a determined contact between its constituents. The bipolar element includes lower and upper electrodes separated from a bipolar electrode by two separators, in which an electrolyte is present in a liquid or gel form. Sealing against the electrolytes of the battery between two constituted adjacent electrochemical cells is provided by a seal which is produced by deposition of resin or adhesive on the periphery of all the electrodes.

<CIT> discloses a battery comprising a plurality of self-contained, substantially cuboid cell housings, in each of which a side face is formed at least in some regions as a negative pole and the opposite side face is designed at least in some regions as a positive pole. The cell housings bear against one another, with the pole on the pole, and extend between a positive contact and a negative contact, and wherein the cell housings are each enclosed by an electrically non-conductive, mechanically supporting frame. The cell housing is filled with electrolyte on both sides of a bimetal.

<CIT> discloses a bipolar battery including a bipolar electrode and an electrolyte layer. The bipolar electrode includes a current collector, a positive electrode layer formed on one surface of the current collector, and a negative electrode layer formed on the other surface of the current collector. The bipolar electrode is sequentially laminated to provide connection in series via the electrolyte layer to form a stack structure. The positive electrode layer, the negative electrode layer and the electrolyte layer are potted with a resin portion. A polymer gel electrolyte can include a solid polymer electrolyte with an ion conductivity.

<CIT> discloses an electrochemical element comprising electrochemical cells which are multiply stacked. The electrochemical cells are formed by stacking: i) a bicell having a cathode; a separator layer; an anode; another separator layer; and another cathode sequentially as a basic unit; or ii) a bicell having an anode; a separator layer; a cathode; another separator layer; and another anode sequentially as a basic unit. A separator film is interposed between each of the stacked bicells.

<CIT> discloses a bipolar electrode having a solid electrolyte, an anode slurry and a cathode slurry, each of which may be provided on a first surface and a second surface of the solid electrolyte, respectively, spacers provided in the anode slurry and the cathode slurry, and a metal substrate provided on the anode slurry and the cathode slurry. The electrode can be dried and pressed, and stacked to form an all-solid state battery.

<CIT> also discloses a battery component of the related art.

The present invention advantageously creates a battery component that is well protected, easily handled and easy to assemble.

The polymer frame can for example be a rigid structure or a dense foil, perforated foil, porous foil, adhesive tape or adhesive foil, and maybe for example be made of polyethylene, polypropylene or a mixture of the two.

The polymer frame is attached at the separator with an overlap from more than <NUM>% to <NUM>%, the separator is attached at one side to the first planar side, so that up to <NUM>% of an area of the first planar side is covered by the separator.

The polymer frame may have further windows, for up to twenty total windows, with a total of one to five windows preferred, and most preferred being one window.

The polymer frame can be attached via gluing, welding, heat bonding, lamination or with an additional adhesive tape to the separator, or via a friction fit, for example via the separator itself or with an electrode attached to the separator and fitting tightly into the frame.

A second polymer frame may be provided on another side of the separator, resulting in a polymer frame - separator - second polymer frame unit.

If attached to the bipolar current collector, the bipolar current collector can be attached to the frame for example by gluing, welding heat bonding, lamination or adhesive tape. Advantageously, a nickel-coated side of an aluminum bipolar current collector can be attached directly to the frame.

The polymer frame window can have the shape of a rectangle, a rectangle with rounded edges, a circle, an oval or a triangle. Preferred are rectangle or a rectangle with rounded edges.

The battery cell component preferably includes at least one electrode attached to the separator, for example in the form of a film.

The polymer frame has at least one feed hole, most preferably four, that for example can fit over rods to aid in processing the stack.

The present invention thus can also provide a battery stack comprising a housing and a plurality of the battery components with the electrode. The polymer frames of the battery components easily be attached directly at the housing, for example via gluing, welding or lamination. A liquid electrolyte advantageously can be added after each polymer frame is attached to the housing.

The battery cell component can include the separator with an anode and cathode film on each side, and the bipolar current collector. The battery components, which are then fully solid can be stacked together first and then attached to a housing.

The present invention advantageously can increase the battery mechanical stability, especially at the battery cell edges, and also can enable a separation of anode and cathode compartments.

The present invention also allows easy handling of the battery cell components, such as brittle electrode material attached to the separator, and thus also provides a method for handling battery components comprising moving the battery component of the present invention as an individual component via the polymer frame.

The following describe several nonlimiting embodiments of the present invention, in which:.

<FIG> shows a battery cell module <NUM> with five stackable battery components <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> having electrode components according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Each battery component <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> includes an anode <NUM>, a separator <NUM>, a cathode <NUM> and a bipolar current collector <NUM>. Each component also includes a polymer frame <NUM>, which on a planar side <NUM> has the bipolar current collector <NUM> and on an opposite planar side <NUM> has the separator <NUM>. Polymer frame <NUM> in this embodiment is a polymer foil, and the attachment of separator <NUM> to frame <NUM> will be described in more detail with respect to <FIG>.

Separator <NUM> can be a dielectric material, for example a porous polyethylene or polyethylene-polypropylene foil (typically <NUM> to <NUM> thickness).

Polymer frame <NUM> can be made for example of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), acrylnitrile butadiene-styrene (ABS), polyamide (PA), polylactic acid (PLA), poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyphenylene oxide (PPO), Polyetherimide (PEI), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polyether sulfone (PES), polybenzimidazole (PBI), nylon und composite foil or multilayer foil made of aluminum foil coated with a polymer for example polypropylene. Most preferably, the polymer frame is a PE/PP mixture.

While typical electrolytes such as liquids or gels may be used, the present invention also can incorporate solid-state electrolytes like lithium oxide or sulfide glasses or glass ceramics or ceramics as electrolytes, and this solid state electrolyte can function as the separator. Bipolar current collector <NUM> can be made of copper or aluminum or nickel-coated aluminum or nickel for example. Anode <NUM> and cathode <NUM> can be deposited for example by vapor deposition or other film technology on separator <NUM>. Bipolar current collector <NUM> can be connected to cathode <NUM> as described below.

<FIG> shows a side view of the embodiment of <FIG> with a housing <NUM> connected to the polymer frames <NUM> of the battery components <NUM> to <NUM> to form a battery module cell. The housing can have for example four walls to cover each side of polymer frames <NUM>, which preferably have a rectangular outer shape.

Housing <NUM> may be made of the same material as polymer frames <NUM> for example, or of a different polymer material.

A rod <NUM> as shown in <FIG> can interact with feed holes in the polymer frames <NUM> as will be described, and can be removed after the stack is created and the housing is added.

<FIG> show a top view of creation of the embodiment of the battery component of the present invention, and <FIG> shows an alternate battery component with the bipolar current collector <NUM> first connected to the polymer frame.

<FIG> shows a side <NUM> of a polymer frame <NUM> with a rectangular window <NUM>.

As shown in <FIG>, frame <NUM> can be placed over separator <NUM>, which can have an anode <NUM> on one side and cathode <NUM> on the other side as shown in <FIG>. Cathode <NUM> protrudes through window <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>. Bipolar current collector <NUM>, which can be a thin metal foil, then can be added over cathode <NUM> and attached to the frame <NUM> at its edges. Frame <NUM> likewise is attached to separator <NUM> around window <NUM>.

Frame <NUM> and separator <NUM>, fixedly connected, thus create an easily stackable battery component <NUM>. Bipolar current collector <NUM>, anode <NUM> and cathode <NUM> can be connected to this stackable component as discussed above or also can added separately or later during assembly.

The anode and the cathode advantageously can be made of polymer, glass, glassceramic or ceramic solid-state materials, and the mechanical properties are improved and much of the mechanical stress during the cell assembly process can be retained by the polymer frame, which lowers the requirements on the assembly process. In addition, small imperfections at the solid-state material edges can be tolerated and the amount of defective goods can be decreased.

<FIG> shows an alternate embodiment which starts out with the same frame <NUM> as in <FIG>. Bipolar current collector <NUM>, which can be a thin foil of aluminum coated with nickel, is placed nickel side down on the frame to overlap side <NUM>. Gluing or other bonding can be used to attach the nickel coating to a PP/PE frame, which advantageously provides a stable connection compares to a PP/PE aluminum or copper connection. The thin foil of the current collector <NUM> is also stabilized well, and then the cathode <NUM>, separator <NUM> and anode <NUM> can be added separately to the combined frame <NUM>/current collector <NUM> component.

<FIG> show various frame geometries of the polymer frames according to the present invention, with <FIG> being similar to <FIG>, and frames <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> having a window <NUM> with rounded edges, a circular window <NUM>, a window <NUM> similar to window <NUM> but smaller for a same outer sized frame, a perfectly square window <NUM> and an oval window <NUM>, respectively.

<FIG> shows a polymer frame <NUM> with for example four windows <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>.

<FIG> shows a polymer frame <NUM> according to the present invention with feed holes <NUM> for easing assembly.

Assembly of the <FIG> embodiment can occur as follows: endplate anode current collector <NUM> is provided, and then battery component <NUM> is added so that frame <NUM> is slid over rod <NUM> via a feed hole <NUM>. Polymer frame <NUM> can be slid over further rods via feed holes <NUM>. Components <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> then can be stacked over the rod <NUM> as shown in <FIG>, and finally cathode top plate <NUM> added to create the battery module <NUM>. The anode <NUM> of a battery component <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> thus can rest on the bipolar current collector <NUM> of the battery component <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, respectively, below.

To create the <FIG> embodiment the rod <NUM> can be removed and housing <NUM> sides can be added and attached to the polymer frames. Liquid electrolyte can be added to the areas formed by the housing and two polymer frames if desirable to increase efficiency.

<FIG> shows a side view of a different embodiment, not of the invention, of the battery component with an additional polymer frame <NUM> attached to the separator <NUM> opposite the polymer frame <NUM>. This embodiment provide additional stability and protection.

As shown in <FIG>, in one application, the battery cell module or stack <NUM> can be created for example with a much larger number of battery cells for providing power as an electric battery to an electric motor <NUM> for powering an electric vehicle <NUM>.

The resulting polymer frame stacked battery also allows the separation of anode and cathode in extra compartments and allows the usage of different anolytes and catholytes. For example, the one electrode side could have a liquid or gel-polymer type electrolyte and the second electrode side can use a solid-state electrolyte or even no electrolyte at all.

By attaching the separator-polymer frame unit to the housing the separator can no longer move or slide inside the cell. Therefore, this unit is more resilient and can better tolerate vibrations or shocks as they occur when having batteries in cars or any transportable device, because the position of the whole cell stack is fixed inside cell.

Claim 1:
A battery component comprising:
a polymer frame (<NUM>) having at least one window (<NUM>), the polymer frame having a first planar side (<NUM>) and an opposite second planar side (<NUM>), and a window edge between the first and second planar sides; and
a battery cell component having an anode (<NUM>), a cathode (<NUM>), a separator (<NUM>) and a bipolar current collector (<NUM>), the separator being attached to the polymer frame;
wherein
- the polymer frame is attached at the separator with an overlap of more than <NUM>% to <NUM>%, such that the separator is attached at one side to the first planar side, so that up to <NUM>% of an area of the first planar side is covered by the separator;
- the separator attached to the first planar side is being unsupported on a side opposite the attachment; and
- the polymer frame has at least one feed hole (<NUM>) outside of the overlapping area going through the polymer frame, wherein the feed hole (<NUM>) can fit over a rod for easing assembly of a battery stack comprising a plurality of battery components.