UCLA

With the continual growth of the Internet of Things and miniaturization of consumer electronics, there is a need to improve the power sources for these technological advancements. Batteries represent a potential power source because of their ability to continuously provide power, however there is a current bottleneck in improving their device performance due to their traditional planar designs. This limitation highlights a shift towards utilizing a nonplanar electrode architecture to improve both energy and power density without sacrificing the improvement of one parameter at the expense of the other. There are several factors to consider when utilizing a nonplanar electrode design including the method of fabrication, microscale considerations (i.e., pore size distribution and tortuosity), and macroscale considerations (i.e., aspect ratio, feature sizes, and distribution of structures). In addition to the constraints on performance with the current electrode design, there are also safety concerns when it comes to other aspects of the battery such as the use of liquid electrolyte.To address these concerns, this dissertation explores two different fabrication methods designed to create nonplanar 3D architectures. The additive manufacturing technique, Direct Ink Writing, will be used to print lattice designs and verify the effect of some of the macroscale architecture considerations. Building blocks of these structures will also be characterized to identify potential limitations in the electrode design and fabrication process. The other fabrication method is sol-gel processing to create a 3D aperiodic sponge architecture, that can be infiltrated with a conducting medium to form a pseudo-solid cathode. Key synthesis parameters in developing an optimized microstructure for lithium intercalation are identified. Both of these electrodes will be utilized in combination with an ionogel pseudo-solid electrolyte to create 2.5D pseudo-solid lithium ion batteries. The outcome of this research will be to highlight new avenues for non-planar and solid state battery development.