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Dry Electrode Lithium Doping Process // 'New' Tesla Patent

发布时间 2023-05-24 13:59:56    来源

摘要

Today I'm going to walk you through a 'new' Tesla patent application for Tesla's dry electrode lithium doping proces. In my view, conceptually, it's the most commercially viable lithium doping process out there. https://patents.google.com/patent/US10461319B2/en Use my referral link to purchase a Tesla product and get free credits you can redeem for awards like Supercharging miles, merchandise and accessories. https://ts.la/jordan72005 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thelimitingfactor Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/limitingfactor42069 Teespring: https://teespring.com/stores/the-limiting-factor Twitter: https://twitter.com/LimitingThe *Timeline* 00:00 Introduction 01:06 Patent History and Background 03:22 First Cycle Losses and Lithium Doping 06:16 Wet Slurry Li Doping Challenges 07:14 Direct Contact Lithium Doping 09:40 Tesla Lithium Doping Process 17:41 Summary Intro Music by Dyalla: Homer Said

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中英文字稿  

Welcome back everyone, I'm Jordan Gisighi and this is the limiting factor. After a dry spell for Tesla patents, several Tesla patent application documents came to light in January and February of this year. The first which I'll cover today is titled Elemental Metal and Carbon Mixtures for Energy Storage Devices. What that basically translates to is Tesla's found a way to add highly volatile lithium metal directly to their dry electrode coating process to boost the energy density of their battery cells. Today I'll walk you through the history of the patent application, alternative lithium doping processes, how Tesla's process works and why if they get it working in full-scale production that it may end up being the most commercially viable lithium doping process on the market.
大家欢迎回来，我是乔丹吉西加，这是《限制因素》。在特斯拉专利干旱一段时间之后，今年1月和2月出现了几份特斯拉专利申请文件。今天我要介绍的第一个是标题为“用于能量储存设备的元素金属和碳混合物”的专利。基本上这意味着特斯拉已经找到一种方法，将高度不稳定的锂金属直接添加到他们干电极涂层工艺中，以提高电池单元的能量密度。今天我将为您讲解专利申请的历史、其他锂掺杂工艺的替代方法、特斯拉的工艺如何工作以及为什么如果他们在大规模生产中成功，这可能成为市场上最具商业可行性的锂掺杂过程。

Before we begin, a special thanks to my Patreon supporters and YouTube members. This is the support that gives me the freedom to avoid chasing the algorithm and sponsors. As always, the links for support are in the description.
开始之前，特别感谢我的Patreon赞助者和YouTube会员。正是这样的支持让我有自由去避免追逐算法和赞助商。如往常一样，支持链接在描述中。

Let's start with the history of the patent. If we look at the Tesla patent application that was published in February of this year, we can see that in the related US application data, this patent application is actually a continuation of two other patent applications. If we pull up the first application on Google Patents, we can see that Maxwell Technologies filed the original patent application in February of 2017. Then they were granted a patent for that application in October of 2019. Of course, in the interim, Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies. So as we'd expect, a couple of years after the acquisition, Tesla had the patent assigned under their name in 2021. This for the second patent application, it was filed by Tesla Post-Aquosition in October of 2019 and a patent was granted in December of 2022. The third and final application is the one we see on screen. This is the document that showed up on the radar of the Tesla community and has not yet been granted a patent.
让我们从专利的历史开始说起。如果我们看一下今年二月发布的特斯拉的专利申请，我们会发现在相关的美国应用数据中，这个专利申请实际上是其他两个专利申请的续集。如果我们在Google Patents上查看第一个申请，我们会发现Maxwell Technologies在2017年2月提交了原始的专利申请，然后在2019年10月被授予了该专利。当然，在此期间，特斯拉收购了Maxwell Technologies。因此，如我们所预期的那样，收购后几年，特斯拉在2021年将该专利分配给了他们的名字下。第二个专利申请是在2019年10月由特斯拉后收购提交的，然后在2022年12月被授予专利。第三个和最后一个申请是我们在屏幕上看到的。这是引起特斯拉社区注意的文件，尚未被授予专利。

Why is Tesla filing what appears to be redundant patent applications? As with any litigious or bureaucratic process, if you don't get what you want the first time, you work the process if you think you can get a better outcome. So that's what Tesla appears to be doing. In the patent application, Tesla claims they've invented several ways to dope the electrodes with lithium. They've received patent grants for some of those claims, but not all. So they're working with the patent office to amend the wording to get as many of their claims patented as possible.
为什么特斯拉会申请看起来是重复的专利申请？正如任何涉诉或官僚程序一样，如果第一次没有得到想要的结果，你可以在认为可以获得更好结果的情况下继续进行这个过程。在专利申请中，特斯拉声称他们已经发明了几种用锂掺杂电极的方法。他们已经获得了一些专利授权，但不是全部。因此，他们正在与专利局合作修订措辞，以尽可能多地获得他们的专利要求。

I won't go through all the claims today in detail and their history because they're 78 and because we don't know which of the claims are most important to Tesla. And that's something that not even Tesla may know at this point if they're still developing the technology. They just want as much freedom to navigate as possible from an intellectual property perspective. The 10,000-foot view is that it appears the patents they've received so far are mostly related to using electrolyte vapor to form a protective SEI layer on elemental lithium. I'll explain how that works later in the video when we get deeper into Tesla's patent application.
今天我不会详细介绍所有声明及其历史，因为它们有78个，因为我们不知道哪些声明对特斯拉来说最重要。如果他们仍在开发技术，那么这是连特斯拉自己也可能不知道的事情。他们只是希望从知识产权的角度尽可能获得自由的发展空间。总的来看，目前为止，特斯拉获得的专利主要与使用电解质蒸汽形成保护SEI层的锂元素有关。等我们深入研究特斯拉的专利申请时，我会在视频后面解释这是如何工作的。

So to be clear, what we're looking at today is actually an application for which Tesla's already been granted a patent. It's just that the previous patent applications and patents weren't spotted by the Tesla community. Thanks to the new patent application, they're now on my radar, and I view them as important. Let's look at why, starting with an understanding of what lithium doping is, how it's usually done and how Tesla's process differs.
因此，今天我们要讨论的实际上是特斯拉已经获得专利的一项申请。只是以前的专利申请和专利被特斯拉社区忽视了。由于新的专利申请，它们现在在我的关注范围内，我认为它们非常重要。让我们来看看为什么，先从了解锂掺杂是什么、通常如何进行以及特斯拉的过程有何不同开始。

The first time a battery is charged and discharged, some of the lithium and the electrolyte reacts with the graphite anode to produce what's called a solid electrolyte interface, or SEI. That's a good thing because it protects the graphite anode from degradation. But it's also a bad thing because it choose up lithium and the battery cell that can no longer be used to store energy. I've seen several figures float it around, but typically, for a graphite anode, first cycle losses appear to be around 6 to 7%.
当电池第一次充放电时，部分锂和电解质会与石墨负极产生所谓的固体电解质界面（SEI）。这是一件好事，因为它可以保护石墨负极免受破坏。但它也是一件坏事，因为它消耗了锂和电池单元，这些材料无法再用于储存能量。我见过一些数字，但通常情况下，对于石墨负极，第一次循环损失似乎在6%到7%左右。

What if you were somehow able to replace the lithium that was lost when creating the SEI? This is what's called lithium doping, and the more technical term for it is pre-lithiation. If we take a typical 2170 battery cell with around 270 watt hours per kilogram of energy density and dope it with lithium to cover the first cycle losses, the energy density would be up to 288 watt hours per kilogram. That's not a massive increase in energy density, but it's certainly significant.
如果你在形成固/液界面时不慎失去了锂离子，那么如果能够进行补偿，会怎样呢？这就是所谓的锂掺杂，它的更专业的术语是预锂化。如果我们将一个 typcial 的2170电池单元，它的能量密度约为每公斤270瓦时，通过掺入锂以补偿首个循环的损失，那么能量密度将增加至每公斤288瓦时。尽管这并不是一个巨大的能量密度增加，但它在技术上却具有显著意义。

The 6 to 7% increase is only for a graphite anode. What if we used a silicon anode? Silicon can store 10 times more lithium than graphite per unit of weight. However, it expands and contracts by about 300% when it's lithium and de-lithiated. During other degradation mechanisms, that expansion and contraction destroys the SEI layer, which then reforms itself, except thicker. And of course, a thicker SEI choose up more lithium. This is one of several reasons why high-loaded silicon anodes haven't yet been fully commercialized.
这6%至7%的增长只是针对石墨负极。如果我们使用硅负极呢？硅可以按重量单位存储比石墨多10倍的锂。然而，当它被充入锂离子并去离子化时，它会膨胀和收缩约300%。在其他氧化机制期间，这种膨胀和收缩会破坏SEI层，然后SEI层会重新形成，但变得更厚。当然，厚的SEI层会损失更多的锂。这是高载荷硅负极尚未完全商业化的几个原因之一。

How much lithium is lost in the first cycle with a silicon anode? That depends on how much silicon is used. Let's use applied materials pre-lithiation process as an example. According to this slide, with an anode that uses about 30% silicon oxide with graphite, around 20% of a lithium is lost in the first cycle and can be replaced by their pre-lithiation process. In another slide, they go on to say that results in about 20% higher gravimetric and 25% higher volumetric energy density, while being about 2% cheaper than a battery cell with a typical graphite anode. Again, using the 2170 as a benchmark, that would mean around 323 watt-hours per kilogram gravimetric and 900 watt-hours per liter volume metric energy density.
硅负极的首次循环会损失多少锂？这取决于使用了多少硅。我们以应用材料的预锂化过程为例。根据这张幻灯片，使用大约30%硅氧化物和石墨的负极，在第一次循环中会损失约20%的锂，可以通过预锂化过程进行补充。在另一张幻灯片中，他们继续说，这将带来大约20%的重量能量密度和25%的体积能量密度增加，同时比使用典型石墨负极的电池单元便宜约2%。再次以2170作为基准，这意味着每千克重量的能量密度约为323瓦时，每升体积的能量密度约为900瓦时。

Obviously these things happen incrementally, and I'm not expecting to see silicon loadings of up to 30% with lithium doping and a mass-produced product until the end of the decade. However, when that time comes, whoever has the lowest cost process will have a significant advantage in the market.
显然，这些事情是逐步发生的，我并不指望看到掺锂硅负荷高达30％的大规模生产产品，直到本十年末。然而，当那个时候到来时，谁拥有最低成本的过程将在市场上具有重要优势。

Given that note, with the benefits out of the way, let's look at how lithium doping is usually done and then compare that to tezeless process. In a typical battery cell production process, the electrode foils are coated with a wet slurry, which is then dried like paint to form the electrode. Due to the fact that the slurry is a liquid, you can't just add lithium metal powder directly to the coating mixture. Why? Because lithium metal is highly reactive to many solvents, like water. Beyond that, it's even reactive to nitrogen in ambient air, and it quickly reacts to form a lithium nitride layer.
考虑到这个笔记，既然好处已经说完了，我们来看看锂掺杂通常是如何进行的，然后将其与非低通滤波工艺进行比较。在典型的电池单元生产过程中，电极箔被涂覆了湿糊，然后像涂漆一样干燥以形成电极。由于糊是液体，所以不能直接向涂覆混合物中添加锂金属粉末。为什么?因为锂金属对许多溶剂（如水）都具有高反应性。此外，它甚至对大气中的氮也具有反应性，并迅速反应形成锂氮化物层。

The reaction happens quickly enough that you can watch it in real time here. That is, doping with lithium metal requires either a moisture and nitrogen-free environment, or a way to protect the lithium metal throughout the manufacturing process. There are a number of ways that can be done, but I'm just going to cover one. If you'd like to know the others, check out this Pre-Lithiation Strategies paper by Florian Holchstiga at Al.
这个反应发生得非常迅速，你可以在这里实时地观察到它。也就是说，用锂金属掺杂需要一个无水和无氮的环境，或者一种在制造过程中保护锂金属的方法。有许多方法可以做到这一点，但我只会介绍其中的一种。如果你想了解其他方法，请参考Florian Holchstiga在Al发表的预锂化策略论文。

The process we're going to cover is called a direct contact process. It starts by coating an electrode foil with a typical wet slurry process, and then drying it to remove all the moisture. Then lithium is placed in direct contact with the electrode, as stabilized lithium metal powder, or SLMP, lithium strips, or a lithium film. This of course has to be done in an environment that's free of moisture and ambient air. For example, in the image on screen, the Pre-Lithiation is occurring in an argon glove box.
我们要讲解的过程称为直接接触法。它先通过典型的湿润浆料工艺将电极箔涂覆，并将其干燥以去除所有水分。然后将锂与电极直接接触，可以是稳定化锂金属粉末、锂带或锂膜。当然，这必须在一个无水和环境空气的环境中进行。例如，在屏幕上显示的图像中，预锂化是在氩气手套箱中进行的。

SLMP is the most commonly used form of lithium for Pre-Lithiation. It's lithium metal powder that has a shell of lithium carbonate. The benefit of the lithium carbonate shell is that it makes SLMP more robust to ambient air. However, it comes with drawbacks. First, the shell adds a production step, which makes SLMP more expensive than pure lithium metal. Second, the shell contains some dead weight due to the carbonate. Third, SLMP still isn't stable enough to be used in a conventional wet slurry process and reacts with the solvent.
SLMP是用于Pre-Lithiation最常用的锂形式。它是锂金属粉末，具有碳酸锂的外壳。碳酸锂外壳的好处是使SLMP更加耐受环境空气。然而，它也有缺点。首先，外壳增加了生产步骤，这使得SLMP比纯锂金属更昂贵。其次，外壳由于包含碳酸盐而带有一些死重。第三，SLMP仍然不稳定，不能用于常规湿糊状处理并会与溶剂反应。

Some researchers have experimented with using solvents that SLMP doesn't react to like polyuein. However, SLMP tends to float in the polyuein, causing dispersion issues, so thus far it's not commercially viable. Regardless, even if it did work, there's another step required for SLMP. The lithium metal particles have to be cracked to expose the lithium. That has to be done in an inert gas environment like argon, or with the electrode soaked in electrolyte.
一些研究人员尝试使用一种SLMP不会反应的溶剂，如polyuein。然而，SLMP往往会在polyuein中浮动，导致分散问题，因此迄今为止它不是商业可行的。但是，即使它起作用，SLMP还需要进行另一个步骤。锂金属颗粒必须被破裂以暴露出锂。这必须在惰性气体环境中进行，如氩气或用电解质浸湿电极。

So really, the only problem that SLMP seems to solve is that it's more stable for shipping and handling. After the lithium metal or SLMP is placed in contact with the graphite, electrolyte is injected and it takes time for the lithium to litheate the graphite.
实际上，SLMP能解决的唯一问题似乎是它在运输和处理方面更加稳定。当锂金属或SLMP与石墨接触后，注入电解液，需要时间让锂将石墨溶解。

The visual cue for that is that as the graphite is litheated, it turns yellow. A final complication here is that if there's excess lithium remaining after litheation, it can cause degradation issues, so the doping has to be both even and precise.
指示这一点的视觉提示是，随着石墨被加热，它会变成黄色。最后的复杂问题是，如果在锂离子电池充放电过程中剩余的锂过多，可能会导致降解问题，因此掺杂必须既均匀又精确。

Outside of using SLMP, the best solution I've seen so far is to use an ultra-thin film deposition technique after the active anode material is coated to the electrode foil. That appears to be what applied materials is doing. However, that still requires extra manufacturing steps and specialized equipment.
除了使用SLMP之外，我目前看到的最好的解决方案是在涂覆电极箔的活性阳极材料之后使用超薄膜沉积技术。这似乎是应用材料公司正在做的。然而，这仍然需要额外的制造步骤和专业设备。

Is there a better way?
有没有更好的方法呢？这个问题的意思是问是否有一种更有效、更有效率、更经济、更好的方式来做某件事。

This brings us to the innovations of Tesla's lithium doping patent.
这将引出特斯拉锂掺杂专利的创新。

Starting with some background, as I said earlier, Tesla acquired Maxwell Technologies in 2019. Tesla had an interest in Maxwell because Maxwell had spent over a decade developing the dry battery electrode or DBE technology.
首先提供一些背景信息，就像我之前所说的，特斯拉在2019年收购了麦克斯韦技术公司。特斯拉对麦克斯韦感兴趣是因为麦克斯韦已经花费了十多年时间来开发干电池电极技术（DBE技术）。

DBE doesn't require the use of any solvents to coat the electrode foils with active material. Instead, the active materials are mixed with a polymer binder which acts like bubble gum to hold the electrode together and stick it to the electrode foil.
DBE 不需要使用任何溶剂来涂覆活性材料在电极箔上。相反，活性材料会与聚合物粘合剂混合在一起，类似泡泡糖，用于将电极保持在一起并将其粘附在电极箔上。

You might already see the immediate benefit of DBE for lithium doping. Unlike a wet slurry process that uses a solvent that lithium metal can react to, with a dry process there's no solvent and the lithium metal can be added directly to the coating mixture.
你可能已经看到了DBE对于锂掺杂的直接好处。与使用锂金属可能会反应的溶剂的湿法浆料工艺不同，干法工艺中没有溶剂，锂金属可以直接添加到涂层混合物中。

This is what's at the heart of Tesla's lithium doping patent. However, it's of course a little more complicated than that because the elemental lithium still needs protection from ambient nitrogen.
这就是特斯拉锂掺杂专利的核心所在。但是，当然要更复杂一些，因为元素锂仍需要保护免受环境氮气的影响。 意思是，特斯拉公司在其锂掺杂技术专利中心的关键是将锂掺杂到电池材料中，以提高其能量密度和长寿命，但是掺杂后的锂还需要受到保护，以免受到来自空气中的氧气和氮气的影响。

With that in mind, let's take a look at Tesla's patent claims. In the patent they describe several process flows for lithium doping and each of those process flows can have variations at each step.
考虑到这一点，让我们来看看特斯拉的专利声明。在该专利中，他们描述了几个锂掺杂的工艺流程，每个工艺流程的每个步骤都可以有不同的变化。

Given the number of potential options here, let's look at what they have in common and go from there.
考虑到这里有很多潜在选择，让我们先看看它们有什么共同点，然后再做决定。

All of the processes involve using a mill or blender to combine carbon particles with lithium metal. Hydrogen particles can be porous carbon or graphite and the lithium can come in any form from lithium powder to lithium sheets.
所有的过程都涉及使用磨粉机或搅拌器将碳粒子与锂金属结合在一起。氢粒子可以是多孔的碳或石墨，而锂可以采用从锂粉到锂片的任何形式。

Then to further complicate things, the mixing can involve three other variables. First, it can either occur in a dirt gas like argon or electrolyte vapor. Second, the time, temperature and pressure of the mixing can be adjusted. Third, the pre-lithiated mixture can be mixed separately from the dry battery electrode mixture in a two-step process or all the mixing can take place in the same machine.
进一步复杂化问题的是，混合还可以涉及另外三个变量。首先，它可以在像氩气或电解质蒸汽这样的杂质气体中发生。其次，混合的时间、温度和压力可以进行调整。第三，预锂化混合物可以通过两步流程分别与干电池电极混合物混合，或者所有的混合可以在同一台机器中完成。

Given all the options here, there's no way to know which combination turned out the best for Tesla.
在这里所有的选项中，没有办法知道哪种组合对特斯拉来说最好。

With that in mind, I'm going to describe two potential lithium doping pathways that give a feel for the patent and the technology toolkit that Tesla is working with.
考虑到这一点，我将描述两种潜在的锂掺杂途径，以便感受到特斯拉正在使用的专利和技术工具箱。

The first lithium doping pathway uses what the patent calls active carbon. I'm assuming what they're referring to here is the same or similar to the activated carbon that's used in air filters. Activated carbon is basically carbon particles with small cracks in them.
第一个锂掺杂通路使用专利称之为活性炭的物质。我猜他们指的是空气滤清器中使用的活性炭，类似的物质。活性炭基本上是碳颗粒带有小的裂缝。

What Tesla suggests is using those cracks to store lithium, which creates a litheated carbon composite material. That composite can then be added to an anode to act as a lithium doping. The question is, how do you get the lithium into the cracks and protect the composite from reacting with ambient air?
特斯拉建议利用这些裂缝来储存锂，从而创建一个柔韧的碳复合材料。该复合材料随后可添加到阳极中，以充当锂掺杂。问题是，怎样将锂注入裂缝，并保护复合材料不受周围空气的反应影响？

The patent explains that one way to do this is to blend the lithium with activated carbon and argon gas at over 180 degrees Celsius. The lithium doesn't react with the argon gas and the lithium melts at 180 degrees Celsius.
该专利说明了一种方法，就是在180摄氏度以上，将锂与活性炭和氩气混合。锂不会与氩气反应，而且在180摄氏度时其可以熔化。

The active carbon is robust to those temperatures, so remains in its solid form. As the mixture is blended, the melted lithium metal impacts the activated carbon and then it sucked into the cracks through capillary action.
活性炭能够承受这些温度，因此仍保持着固态。在混合物混合时，熔化的锂金属会和活性炭发生相互作用，然后通过毛细作用吸入裂缝中。

The result is litheated carbon. Then after the litheated carbon is formed, a polymer can be introduced into the jet mill to form a protective layer over the lithium carbon composite particles.
经过处理后，得到的是加热处理过的碳。接着，在加热处理过的碳中投入聚合物，形成一层保护层，覆盖在锂碳复合颗粒上。

That protective layer stabilizes the particles so that they don't react with ambient air and can be used as raw material in a dry process.
这个保护层稳定了粒子，使其不会与环境空气发生反应，并可用作干燥工艺的原材料。

The second lithium doping pathway is to use graphite instead of porous active carbon particles. Argonne is again provided as an inert atmosphere, but the gas doesn't necessarily have to be heated this time.
第二种锂掺杂途径是使用石墨而不是多孔活性碳粒子。阿贡实验室再次提供惰性气氛，但这次气体并不一定需要加热。 该句话表达了一种新的锂掺杂方法，使用石墨代替多孔活性碳粒子，以实现较高的电池性能。在这种方法中，阿贡实验室提供惰性气氛来保护反应，并使气氛不必加热。

This is because the lithium is simply used to coat the graphite and no capillary action is required. Lithium is a relatively soft metal and the action of the jet mill is enough to adhere the lithium metal to the graphite particles.
这是因为锂只需用于覆盖石墨，不需要毛细作用。锂是一种相对较软的金属，喷射磨机的作用足以使锂金属附着于石墨粒子上。

Once again, the lithium needs a protective coating so that it doesn't react with the ambient air. This time, instead of using a polymer to create the protective coating, electrolyte vapor is introduced into the mixing chamber.
再次提到，锂需要一层保护涂层以避免与环境空气发生反应。这次，不再使用聚合物创建保护涂层，而是将电解质蒸汽引入混合室中。

This causes a protective SEI layer to form over the lithium metal. Interestingly, this not only allows the lithium coated graphite to be used in a dry electrode coating process, but also allows it to be used in a standard wet slurry electrode coating process.
这会形成一层保护性的固体电解质界面(SEI)层在锂金属表面上。有趣的是，这不仅使得涂上锂的石墨可以用于干法电极涂覆工艺，也能够用于标准湿法泥浆电极涂覆工艺。

Let's zoom out to look at how the lithium coated graphite and lithium carbon composite particle can be used in the broader electrode coating process.
让我们放大视野来看看锂包覆石墨和锂碳复合颗粒在更广泛的电极涂层过程中如何使用。

Earlier, I said that Tesla's DBE process combines active materials with a polymer binder that acts like bubble gum to hold the electrode together and stick it to the electrode foil. Of course, bubble gum has to be chewed in order to maximize its stickiness, in a sense the same thing happens with the polymer binder.
之前我提到特斯拉的DBE过程将活性材料与聚合物粘结剂混合，这种粘结剂的作用就像泡泡糖一样，可以将电极牢固地粘在一起，并粘贴在电极箔上。当然，泡泡糖也需要被咀嚼才能最大化其粘性，在某种程度上，聚合物粘结剂也是如此。

It starts out as micro particles that are mixed with the active energy storing materials. Then a jet mill is used to stretch the polymer into filaments, which is called fibralization. The fibrelated polymer turns the mixture into a kind of dough that can be run through rollers to form a standing film and then compressed onto an electrode foil.
这段话的意思是：它首先是由微小颗粒混合活性储能材料开始的。然后，使用飞速磨机将聚合物拉伸成丝状，这被称为纤维化。然后，纤维聚合物将混合物变成了一种可以通过滚轮制成立体薄膜并压缩到电极箔上的面团状物。

You may have noticed that Tesla's dry electrode coating process uses a jet mill and the process they use to produce lithiated material also uses a jet mill. Clearly, there's an opportunity here to complete all those operations in the same machine. That's exactly what's being shown in the image on screen from Tesla's patent application. Although a bench scale blender is used in this example, the basic concept is the same.
你可能已经注意到，特斯拉的干电极涂料工艺使用气流粉碎机，他们用来生产锂材料的工艺也使用气流粉碎机。显然，在同一台机器上完成所有这些操作的机会已经出现了。这正是特斯拉在专利申请中展示的图像所显示的内容。尽管在这个例子中使用的是实验室级的混合器，但基本概念是相同的。

Figure 8A shows the lithium metal and graphite ready for blending. Figure 8B shows the blended graphite and lithium metal mixture. And Figure 8C shows the mixture after the polymer binder or PTFE has been added. They've left out the step where a polymer coating or electrolyte vapor is added to stabilize the pure lithium metal. Let's add that as Figure 8B1.
图片8A展示了准备混合的锂金属和石墨。 图片8B展示了混合的石墨和锂金属混合物。 图片8C展示了添加聚合物粘结剂或PTFE后的混合物。 他们省略了添加聚合物涂层或电解质蒸汽以稳定纯锂金属的步骤。 让我们将其添加为图8B1。 意思为：图8A展示了准备混合的锂金属和石墨，图8B展示了混合后的石墨和锂金属混合物，图8C展示了添加聚合物粘结剂或PTFE后的混合物。然而他们忽略了电解质蒸汽或聚合物涂层的添加步骤。因此，我们应该将其添加为图8B1。

After Figure 8C, the lithium-doped mixture would simply be treated the same as Tesla's standard dry coating material. It would be fed into a series of rollers to form the negative electrode. Obviously, there's a lot of complication that's left out here. This wouldn't be carried out in low volume single batches in a fume hood with a full-scale process.
在第8C图之后，掺锂的混合物将与特斯拉标准的干涂层材料一样进行处理。它将被送入一系列压辊中形成负极。显然，这里有很多复杂的内容被省略了。这不会在一个低容量的排气罩中的单个批次中完成，而是要进行全面的工艺处理。

First, in a full-scale process, an industrial-sized jet mill would be used to process larger volumes of materials. Second, rather than single batches, this would have to be turned into a continuous motion process. That means finding a way to generate enough constant throughput with one machine or by switching off between a series of machines.
首先，在大规模的生产过程中，需要使用工业级喷气式磨粉机来加工更大的物料容量。其次，这不仅需要进行单批次处理，还需要将其变成连续运动的过程。这意味着要找到一种方法，在单一机器或多台机器间切换，以生成足够的恒定流量。

Then of course, there are the more tactical issues. For example, how to feed lithium metal into the jet mill while keeping it isolated from ambient air. How to control the feeds of argon gas and electrolyte vapor to create consistency across batches, and given that molten aluminum might be used, would that begin to form solid lithium deposits on the walls of the mixing chamber?
当然，还有更多战术性的问题。比如，如何将锂金属输送到喷射磨中，同时保持其与环境空气隔离。如何控制氩气和电解质蒸汽的输入，以在批次之间保持一致性，考虑到可能会使用熔融铝，那么是否会在混合室壁上开始形成固态锂沉积？

These are just wild guesses on my part, so if you have experience with jet mills, please share your thoughts in the comments below. Regardless whether they're correct or not, they're the first and a long list of the type of challenges that need to be addressed to move something from a patent to an actualized production process.
这只是我个人猜测的一些荒唐想法，如果你对喷气磨有经验，请在下面的评论中分享你的想法。无论这些猜测是否正确，它们都是需要解决的挑战中的第一个和长列表，以将某物从专利转化为实际生产过程。

Either way, if Tesla can get this process to work, what their proposing looks like, it would be significantly simpler, faster, and cheaper than anything else on the market. Instead of requiring an extra processing step where the pure lithium is coated on top of the active electrode material, the lithium is simply added to the mix of materials that coat the electrode in the first place.
无论如何，如果特斯拉能够让这个过程正常运作，他们提出的方案看起来将会比市场上任何其他方案都更加简单、快速、便宜。与要求在活性电极材料的顶部涂覆纯锂的额外加工步骤不同，锂仅仅被添加到首次涂覆电极的材料混合物中即可。

I'd like to emphasize here that although the basic concept is simple, this would be a hell of an engineering challenge, and I don't think we'll see Tesla doing it anytime soon. This is because they're currently preoccupied with scaling the basic process. However, when they do turn their attention to lithium doping, they have the patents in place to do it without modifying their existing production lines.
我想在这里强调的是，虽然基本概念很简单，但这将是一个相当大的工程挑战，我不认为我们会很快看到特斯拉做到这一点。这是因为他们目前正忙于扩大基本工艺。然而，当他们将注意力转向锂掺杂时，他们已经拥有专利来在不修改现有生产线的情况下实现这一点。

In summary, as I've said in the past, if Tesla can get it fully scaled, their DBE process will be far superior to a wet process. Why take dry material, turn it into a slurry, only to dry it again, and then to wet it with electrolyte when it goes into the battery cells. It's the old digging the hole, filling the hole, and redigging the hole analogy.
简而言之，正如我之前所说，如果特斯拉能够完全扩大规模，他们的DBE工艺将远远优于湿法工艺。为什么要将干料转化成浆料，然后再次干燥，然后加入电解质使其变成湿料进入电池单元呢？这就像是老掘洞、填洞、再掘洞的比喻。

Now we see another advantage with the dry processing technique and another reason why Tesla bought Maxwell technologies. Maxwell not only had the DBE patents, but also patents for a clever way to do lithium doping, which allows them to place lithium metal directly in, too, the jet mill that's used to create the dough that's used to coat the electrode foils.
现在我们看到了干加工技术的另一个优势，并且明白了特斯拉收购麦克斯韦技术的另一个原因。麦克斯韦不仅拥有DBE专利，还有一种巧妙的锂掺杂方法的专利，这使得他们可以将锂金属直接放入喷射磨中，用于制作用于包覆电极箔的面团。

If Tesla put their lithium doping process in production, what would the impact be for their 4680 battery cells? With regards to cost, based on this slide by applied materials, the minimum savings look to be around 2% on a dollar per kilowatt hour basis.
如果特斯拉将他们的锂掺杂工艺投入生产，那么对他们的4680电池有什么影响？就成本而言，根据应用材料公司的这张幻灯片，在每千瓦时的基础上，最低节省看起来约为2%。

But of course the process applied materials is using would require specialized equipment and an extra process step. If I were to guess, I'd say that Tesla would be saving 50% to 100% more than applied materials, which would be 3 to 4% of the cost of a battery cell.
当然，应用材料的工艺需要专门的设备和额外的工序。如果我要猜测的话，我认为特斯拉会比应用材料省下50%到100%，而这相当于电池单元成本的3%到4%。

Why not more? Because the cost of a battery anode is already half the cost per unit of weight and twice the energy density of the cathode. Furthermore, there are also a number of other materials in the battery cell like metal foils, electrolyte and separators that dilute the cost savings effect.
为什么不能增加呢？因为电池阳极的成本已经是单位重量成本的一半，而能量密度是阴极的两倍。此外，电池中还有许多其他材料，如金属箔、电解质和隔板，这些会削弱成本节省效应。

That means any improvements to the anode have a minimal impact on cost at the cell level. This is why at battery day, although Tesla teased cheaper anode materials with 20% greater range through higher energy density, the impact on cost was only 5%.
这意味着，对阳极的任何改进对电池成本的影响都非常小。因此，在电池日上，尽管特斯拉推出了20%更高储能密度的更便宜的阳极材料，能够获得更大的续航里程，但成本影响只有5%。

However, bear in mind that batteries are expensive and vehicles use a lot of them. So a cost savings of only 3 to 4% at the cell level would be around $200 per vehicle, which is $200 million for each million vehicles produced.
然而，请记住电池很昂贵，车辆需要使用大量电池。因此，在电池单元水平上的成本节省仅为3至4％，每辆车大约为200美元，每生产100万辆车则为2亿美元。

Furthermore, that doesn't include the fact that a vehicle using battery cells that are doped with silicon and lithium would also be a couple hundred pounds lighter, making them more efficient and reducing structural costs, which brings us to energy density.
此外，这还没有包括使用掺有硅和锂的电池单元的车辆也会轻几百磅，使它们更加高效并降低结构成本，进而引出能量密度这个问题。

First, some caveats. For the next couple of years, Tesla's focus will be on optimizing their battery cells and production system. Chemical approaches for improving energy density are probably further down on their list of priorities.
首先，需要说明的是，未来几年内，特斯拉的重点将放在优化他们的电池单元和生产系统上。改善能量密度的化学方法可能不在他们的优先事项之列。

For example, the generation 2 battery cells that are being produced in Austin will probably see at least a 5% energy density improvement at the cell level alone by making better use of the 4684 factor and removing redundant components. That doesn't include the myriad of improvements that will also be happening with the current overbuilt 4680 pack.
例如，在奥斯汀生产的第二代电池单元将通过更好地利用4684因素并消除冗余组件，在单元层面上至少看到5％的能量密度改进。这还不包括当前过度设计的4680电池组还将发生的各种改进。

The pack level energy density is just as important as the cell level energy density, and the new pack design will take time to optimize. That is, lithium doping is probably something Tesla won't be doing for a few years, but when they do focus on it and master the process, for a pure graphite anode it would improve energy density by 6 to 7%.
包装级能量密度和电池级能量密度同样重要，新的包装设计需要时间来进行优化。也就是说，锂掺杂可能在未来几年内并不是特斯拉的重点，但当他们专注于此并掌握了这个过程之后，对于纯石墨阳极来说，它能够提高能量密度6%到7%。

And that's small potatoes compared to what's possible. Tesla teased a 20% range increase at battery day through the use of more silicon and the anode. Let's say that range equates to energy density to keep things simple.
相比可能的事情，这只是小菜一碟。特斯拉在电池日透露，通过使用更多的硅和阳极，可以实现20%的续航里程增加。我们可以把这个增加的续航里程等同于能量密度，以保持简单。

As I've said in past videos, that 20% figure would be difficult to hit without lithium doping. However, with lithium doping and advancements in silicon anode technology in the longer term, 20% might be at the lower end of what's possible.
就像我之前在视频中所说的那样，如果没有锂掺杂，要达到20%的效率是比较困难的。然而，如果在更长远的时间内通过锂掺杂和硅负极技术的进步，20%的效率可能只是可行性范围的下限。

With that said, let's stick with 20% as a safe figure because I expect to see that by 2026 at the earliest. For a high nickel battery cell, that would mean around 326 watt hours per kilogram. And more importantly, a much faster charging rate because silicon can absorb lithium much quicker than graphite.
有了这个说法，让我们将20%作为一个安全的数字，因为我预计最早在2026年能够达到这个水平。对于一种高镍的电池单体，这意味着每公斤约326瓦时的电量。更重要的是，由于硅可以比石墨更快地吸收锂离子，因此充电速度会更快。

For me, where lithium doping is most interesting isn't an ultra high energy density battery cells, but in lower cost LFP battery cells that are easier to scale. In a Tesla Model 3, a lithium doped LFP battery cell in a mature 4680 battery pack architecture would be pushing well over 300 miles of range with no silicon and 350 miles of range with silicon.
对我而言，锂掺杂最有趣的地方不是超高能量密度电池，而是更易于扩展的低成本LFP电池。在Tesla Model 3中，成熟的4680电池组架构中锂掺杂的LFP电池将能够达到超过300英里的续航里程，无硅的情况下续航里程可以达到350英里。

Again, this is years away, but that's where Tesla's headed in the long run if they can capitalize on all the technologies that they have patents for.
再说一遍，这还需要几年时间，但如果特斯拉能充分利用他们拥有专利的所有技术，这就是特斯拉长期发展的方向。

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