Battery manufacturing

The transition to electric mobility and renewable energy is driving an unprecedented global demand for rechargeable batteries. To meet this demand, battery gigafactories are being built worldwide, aiming to collectively deliver terawatt-hours of annual cell production within the next decade. However, scaling up battery manufacturing at this pace poses major challenges related to materials utilization, production yield, energy consumption, environmental sustainability, and cost.
Today’s lithium-ion batteries are predominantly manufactured through wet electrode processing, where electrode materials, binders, and conductive additives are dispersed in a solvent, coated onto metal current collectors, and subsequently dried and calendered before cell assembly. The drying step is among the most energy- and cost-intensive stages of the cell manufacturing process and requires large ovens and complex solvent recovery systems. To reduce both energy consumption and cost of battery cell manufacturing, our lab develops scalable dry electrode processing routes that eliminate the need for solvents and consequently also the drying step. 
Our lab also explores cutting-edge manufacturing approaches for solid-state batteries. With the aim of overcoming current challenges in large-scale production of solid-state batteries, we focus on strategies that can be seamlessly scaled to gigafactory-scale manufacturing. By bridging the gap between laboratory innovation and industrial-scale production, we aim to accelerate the adoption of solid-state batteries in next-generation batteries.
In parallel, we support the development of sustainable recycling strategies to conserve resources and reduce waste. Ultimately, all our efforts converge on minimizing the environmental footprint of battery cell manufacturing, while delivering high-performance batteries at a competitive cost. 

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 (a) Scanning electron microscopy image of an ion-milled cross-section of a lithium-ion battery. (b) Comparison of the different manufacturing steps for slurry coating vs dry coating of electrodes. (c) Comparison of discharge capacity vs cycle number for slurry coated vs dry coated electrodes.

Selected publications

[1] E. Quérel, V. Dolder, C. Hänsel, P. Stoessel, C. Girsule, S. Tschöcke, P. Ziemianski, B. Schumm, C. Battaglia, Industrial dry coating of NMC battery electrodes enabled by continuous extrusion mixing. ChemRxiv, 2025, https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-46z12
[2] G. Homann, Q. Wang, S. Liu, A. Devincenti, P. Karanth, M. Weijers, F. M. Mulder, M. Piesins, T. Gouveia, A. Ladam, S. Fantini, C. Battaglia, A quasi-solid-state polymer lithium–metal battery with minimal excess lithium, ultrathin separator, and high-mass loading NMC811 cathode, ACS Applied Energy Materials, 2024, 7, 10037, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.4c02099
[3] L. Duchêne, D. H. Kim, Y. B. Song, S. Jun, R. Moury, A. Remhof, H. Hagemann, Y. S. Jung, C. Battaglia, Crystallization of closo-borate electrolytes from solution enabling infiltration into slurry-casted porous electrodes for all-solid-state batteries, Energy Storage Materials, 2020, 26, 543, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2019.11.027

Funding

Swiss Federal Office of Energy, InnoSuisse (CircuBat), Horizon 2020 (Solidify)


Press releases

Novel batteries for a circular economy, CircuBAT improves eco-balance of e-mobility https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/circubat
Towards a sustainable and competitive battery value chain in Europe, novel manufacturing process for high-performance lithium-metal battery https://www.empa.ch/web/s604/solidify-h2020-lithium-metall-batterie


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