Lithium iron phosphate battery electrode integrity following high speed pulsed laser cutting

Abstract

Laser exposures are performed on lithium iron phosphate battery electrodes at $1\,\hbox {m}/\hbox {s}$ with process parameters based on those leading to the smallest heat affected zone for low power laser exposure at $100\,\hbox {mm}/\hbox {s}$. Scanning electron microscopy and Raman analysis are performed along the resulting cut edges to characterize macroscopic, chemical and microstructural changes resulting from laser exposure. The increase in velocity with respect to previous studies is found to limit macroscopic changes to areas directly exposed to the laser beam and greatly suppress or completely eliminate microstructural and chemical changes resulting from thermal conduction effects in the metallic conductor layers. These results confirm laser technology as a viable, more flexible solution to mechanical blanking devices for the cutting of lithium iron phosphate battery electrode films.