Gravure Printed Composites Based on Lithium Manganese Oxide: A Study Case for Li-Ion Batteries Manufacturing

Aimed by the increasing interest in the field of printed batteries, the study recently has demonstrated the possibility to successfully gravure print composites working as electrodes for Li-ion batteries. Gravure is one of the most appealing printing technique for the mass production of functional layers due to its unique ability to couple high speed and high resolution. The ink formulation is challenging because of the low viscosity ink requirement which makes difficult to obtain the proper functionality of the layer, especially in case of composite materials like electrodes, and a mass loading suitable for practical applications. Changing a material of the composite implies the study of a new gravure ink in terms of formulation and preparation process. Ruling the ink preparation can strongly decrease the process time promoting the industrial use of the gravure printing. For this reason, the study proposes a methodology, mainly based on the capillary number, able to suggest the best receipt for each specific ink. Here, a study case is reported, using lithium manganese oxide (LMO) as active material for the gravure printed cathode manufacturing. Such work gives the possibility to show the proposed methodology for ruling the ink preparation.