Flexible and Conducting Metal-Fabric Composites Using the Flame Spray Process for the Production of Li-Ion Batteries

The wire flame spray process was used to produce electrically conductive and flexible Al coatings onto diverse textile fabrics. The investigation studied the influence of the spraying parameters and fabric materials on the electrical conductivity of the metal-fabric composites. Furthermore, this study showed that the production of flexible Li-ion batteries having good electrical properties based on the use of such flame-sprayed aluminium cathode current collectors is viable. Results show that a coating quantity threshold of about 20 mg/cm² exists to obtain a sufficient electrical surface conductivity for a commercial use of the produced metal-fabric composites. An excellent electrical surface conductivity of the composites (about 500 S_A) could be achieved through an adequate optimization of the spraying parameters. This conductivity increase enabled a reduction of the coating quantity and thus the flexibility of the fabric materials is better conserved, rendering the use of such composites for flexible batteries even more interesting. This study showed that the production of electrically conductive and flexible metal-fabric composites having sufficient electrical conductivity for the manufacture of flexible Li ions batteries is possible. This new method of producing such batteries represents an alternative to other chemically based processes which are hazardous to the environment because of their chemical nature.