Modeling of electrode microstructures

Bimodal Anode and Bimodal Cathode are powerful Electrode Generation GeoApps in GeoDict to advance battery design. These GeoApps are the digital and easy solution to create realistic electrode microstructures.

When working on the optimal design of a battery electrode, these Electrode Generation GeoApps allow to perform complex parameter studies. Their efficiency in structure generation saves significant time and resources by providing rapidly thousands of prototypes for testing that would be unattainable traditionally in the laboratory.

The 3D electrodes generated with the Bimodal Anode and Bimodal Cathode GeoApps are composed of up to two types of solid particles, carbon binder domain (conductive carbon and PVDF binder), and liquid electrolyte.

The modelling process begins with defining the size and voxel resolution of the future microstructure. The constituent materials are easily selected from the GeoDict Material Database. The recipe of the digital electrodes is adjusted by providing the grain size distribution of the particles, the ratio between particle types, the binder mass percentage, and the target performance indicator of the electrode.

Laboratory-derived data, including grain orientation and grain size distribution (D1, D10, D50, D90, D99 values), are directly be integrated as inputs for the GeoApps. Electrode generation is optimized based on target porosity (v%) or areal capacity loading (mAh/cm²) within predefined tolerances and a maximum number of attempts.

The electrode generation is provided in two primary options depending on the shape of the generated particles: Bimodal Anode or Bimodal Cathode.

The Bimodal Anode GeoApp generates structures using ellipsoidal grains. Customize the basic shape of particles by selecting between ellipsoids or convex polyhedra. Combine this with grain orientation and size distribution to achieve precise shape definitions. The result are highly realistic microstructures for anode electrodes, suitable for materials like graphite.

The Bimodal Cathode GeoApp generates 3D microstructures using spherical particles and creates realistic cathode microstructures, highly similar to NMC for example.