The Influence of Beam Shape on the Single-Track Formation of Pure Zn Towards the Additive Manufacturing of Battery Electrodes

Additive Manufacturing (AM) can provide several benefits for battery manufacturing by combining geometrical flexibility and controlled porosity. Zinc is an appealing battery material because it is an abundant metal with relatively low cost, and potential recyclability. However, the processing of Zn and its alloys through melting based AM processes is cumbersome. The use of novel ring-shaped beams can widen the processing window in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), which is an appealing technology to produce electrodes. In this work, single-track formation during the LPBF of pure Zn with Gaussian and doughnut shaped beams was studied. In a wide range of experiments, geometrical attributes were observed through cross-sectional analyses and high-speed imaging. The conditions that range from surface heating to conduction melting and keyholing were determined. The feasibility of producing thin walls for anodes was also demonstrated.