David Lee Wood

R2R processing is used to manufacture a wide range of products for various applications which span many industrial business sectors. The overall R2R methodology has been in use for decades and this continuous technique traditionally involves deposition of material(s) onto moving webs, carriers or other continuous belt-fed or conveyor-based processes that enable successive steps to build a final version which serves to support the deposited materials. Established methods that typify R2R processing include tape casting, silk-screen printing, reel-to-reel vacuum deposition/coating, and R2R lithography. Products supported by R2R manufacturing include micro-electronics, electro-chromic window films, PVs, fuel cells for energy conversion, battery electrodes for energy storage, and barrier and membrane materials. Due to innovation in materials and process equipment, high-quality yet very low-cost multilayer technologies have the potential to be manufactured on a very cost-competitive basis. To move energy-related products from high-cost niche applications to the commercial sector, the means must be available to enable manufacture of these products in a cost-competitive manner that is affordable. Fortunately, products such as fuel cells, thin- and mid-film PVs, batteries, electrochromic and piezoelectric films, water separation membranes, and other energy saving technologies readily lend themselves to manufacture using R2R approaches. However, more early-stage research ismore » needed to solve the challenge of linking the materials (particles, polymers, solvents, additives) used in ink and slurry formulations and the coating and drying processes to the ultimate performance of the final R2R product, especially for a process that uses multiple layers of deposition to achieve the end product.To solve the problems associated with these challenges, the R2R Collaboration is executing a research program with outcomes that will ultimately link modeling, processing, metrology and defect detection tools, thereby directly relating the properties of constituent particles and processing conditions to the performance of final devices. The Collaboration team and their research efforts with industry involvement are illustrated schematically in Figure 1. This collaborative approach was designed to foster identification and development of materials and processes related to R2R for clean-energy materials development. Using computational and experimental capabilities by acknowledged subject matter experts within the supported National Laboratory system, this project leverages the capabilities and expertise at each of five National Laboratories to further the development of multilayer technologies that will enable high-volume, cost-competitive platforms. Figure 1. The R2R AMM DOE Laboratory Collaboration team and major research efforts. Source: ORNLA typical R2R process has three steps: (1) mixing of particles and various constituents in a slurry, (2) coating of the ink/slurry mixture on a substrate, and (3) drying/curing and processing of the coating. Final performance of devices made via R2R processes is dependent on the active materials (e.g., electrochemical particles in battery or fuel cell electrodes) and the device structure that stems from the governing component interactions within the various steps. However, a fundamental understanding of the underlying mechanisms and phenomena is still lacking, which is why industrial-scale R2R process development and manufacturing is still largely empirical in nature.The FY 2019 through FY 2021 program addresses aspects of the following two targets from the AMO Multi-Year Program Plan: •Target 8.1 Develop technologies to reduce the cost per manufactured throughput of continuous R2R manufacturing processes.oIncreasing throughput of R2R processes by 5 times for batteries (to 50 square feet per minute (50 ft2/min)) and capacitors and 10 times for printed electronics and the manufacture of other substrates and MEs used in support of these products.oDeveloping resolution capabilities to enable registration and alignment that will detect, align, and co-deposit multiple layers of coatings and print < 1-micron (1 µm) features using continuous process scalable for commercial production.oDeveloping scalable and reliable R2R processes for solution deposition of ultra-thin (<10 nm) films for active and passive materials. oDevelop in-line multilayer coating technology on thin films with yields greater than 95%.•Target 8.2 Develop in-line instrumentation tools that will evaluate the quality of single and multilayer materials in-process.oDeveloping in-line QC technologies and methodologies for real-time identification of defects and expected product properties “in-use/application” during continuous processing at all size-scales with a focus on the “micro” and “nano” scale traces, lines, and devicesoDeveloping technologies to increase the measurement frequency of surface rheology without significant cost incr « less

Here we report dual ion conduction capability of Na-based NASICON type super ion conductor materials using Na_1+xMn_x/2Zr_2–x/2(PO₄)₃ (NMZP) as a candidate system. This method enables the use of Na-based NASICON material family in both Na as well as Li all solid-state batteries (SSBs). NZMPs with x = 1.5 and x = 2 showed the highest room-temperature conductivities of 2.86 × 10^–5 and 2.82 × 10^–5 S cm^–1, respectively. Crystallographic analysis using neutron diffraction revealed that conductivities observed in these materials are related to the variations in the Na–O bond length and the concentration of mobile sodium content. Using galvanostatic plating and stripping tests, we show that these NMZPs boast good cycling stability against both Na and Li metals, which also reveals dual ion conduction. Mechanistic investigations through post-mortem SEM/EDS and XPS characterizations of the alkali metal and the cycled NMZPs confirm that the Na–Li ion-exchange occurs readily in these materials when electrochemically cycled.