ALD is a platform technology that has been widely demonstrated throughout the literature to impart significant processing and performance gains on lithium ion battery technologies, having notable impacts on surface stabilization of the positive electrode. At Forge Nano, we have elevated this predominantly research scale technique to production heights, making ALD a viable and affordable technology to meet a variety of materials enhancement needs. Our surface modification process allows for sub-nanometer thickness coatings to be tuned for optimal battery performance for battery chemistries relevant in both power electronics as well as vehicle technologies. In this work we will demonstrate the significant gains observed to commercially available LCO by way of increased cycle life, increased energy density and beyond state-of-the art fast charge capabilities. Alongside performance enhancements, we will explore the mechanisms of ALD protection at high voltage, during shelf-life aging and under strenuous test conditions including variable temperatures and c-rates.

Recent achievements in high-energy batteries have been made by using Ni-rich NMC cathodes (LiNixMnyCo1-x-yO2 with x > 0.5) in conjunction with higher cell voltages. However, these gains have come at a cost of fast capacity fade and poor rate performace. In our previous study, we showed that Al2O3 ALD coatings on LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (NMC811) and LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 (NCA) cathodes prevented surface phase transitions, reduced impedance, and extended cycle life in high voltage cells. Here, neutron diffraction (ND), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) are used to fully investigate the mechanism by which ALD surface coatings mitigate NMC811 cathode degredation. Refinement of ND patterns indicated no changes in the bulk crystal structure of cycled cathodes-with or without the Al2O3 coating. Rather, the improved performance of ALD-coated cathodes is clearly due to surface stabilization. EELS established that all three transition metal oxidation states were reduced at the surface of the uncoated cathode after cycling, whereas the coated cathode showed no changes in surface oxidation states relative to the bulk. The surface coatings also prevented transition metal dissolution and crossover. XPS analysis of the anode harvested from cycled cells with uncoated cathodes showed significant amounts of Mn deposited within the SEI. In contrast, no Mn could be detected on the anodes cycled with coated cathodes. These results affirm that ALD coatings can effectively reduce the reactivity of the NMC surface and prevent detrimental side reactions that shorten battery cycle life.

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage is widely regarded as the best technology to realize affordable electrification of automobiles (hybrids and EVs), buses, and ships. However strategies to realize higher energy density and lower cost come at the expense of cell lifetime and safety. For example, 10-20% higher energy density can be achieved by charging cells with layered cathodes (e.g., NMC and NCA) to voltages higher than 4.2V, however this is well known to accelerate capacity fade, resistance growth, SEI growth, and gas evolution. Although studies increasingly show the sites of degradation are active material particle surfaces and the active material-electrolyte interface, the specific mechanisms of these phenomena remain unclear and difficult to quantify. Without clear understanding of the specific degradation mechanisms that dominate cell failure during higher voltage cycling, solutions to enable high voltage operation will have limited success. We have isolated key mechanisms occurring at higher voltages in NMC532, NMC622, and NMC811 cells including positive electrode resistance growth (Rct) as measured by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), and Mn dissolution as measured by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) of cycled negative electrodes, and shown the correspondence to cycle life of 95mm x 64mm pouch cells using graphite anodes. Foremost, we have found that Al2O3 ALD coatings dramatically diminish these degradation mechanisms and enable significantly better cycling performance in pouch cells when charged to higher voltage.

Lithium-ion battery-based energy storage is widely regarded as the best technology to realize affordable electrification of automobiles (hybrids and EVs), buses, and ships. However, strategies to realize higher energy density and lower cost come at the expense of cell lifetime and safety. Extensive effort has been devoted to studying the effects of ALD coatings on cathode materials, with varying reports of the impact on full cell cycle life. The changes in surface chemistry of ALD-coated cathode particles and their specific effects on electrochemical performance have not been studied in detail. Unmodified particle surfaces contain active oxygen, LiOH, and Li2CO3 species. The chemistry of these species during delithiation and interaction with the electrolyte can introduce components of impedance that can limit the capacity and rate capability of the material. Moisture adsorption can occur over time which can interact with and generate more of these species, causing a further deterioration of capacity. We have shown that important functions of ALD are to “clean” the particle surfaces, decreasing the content of LiOH and moisture, and forming a barrier to water adsorption and further generation of these species. Thus an important mechanism of ALD enhancement of cathode materials in full cells is demonstrated. This understanding should be applied to past and future studies, and represents a powerful new strategy to mitigate the effects of moisture.

Li-ion batteries have demonstrated a great capability for meeting the needs of an ever-growing market of mobile technology. However, as these applications become more demanding more energy and power will be required from rechargeable Li-ion batteries. To meet these needs there are many R&D efforts ongoing to design and generate new materials capable of higher performance. In contrast to this approach, higher performance electrode materials could be achieved through surface-engineering of existing materials. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), a vapor phase deposition technique used to apply Angstrom thick layers of material on the surface of powders and objects, has been demonstrated to enable higher voltage cycling, longer cycle life, and increased safety, as well as improvements to the manufacturing process of Li-ion batteries. Historically ALD has been regarded as slow and expensive, however Forge Nano has developed a method for applying ALD coatings onto materials at low cost and high volume. In this work, Forge Nano demonstrates the ability to utilize ALD to enable significant improvements to Li-ion battery performance as well as reduce costs to produce batteries at scale.

The benefits of producing particles with tailored interfaces using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique have been widely demonstrated in the field of energy storage. As mobility and portability requirements grow, so does the need for higher energy density materials, higher power density systems, and enhanced lifecycles of devices, all of which create additional stresses at interfaces within energy storage modules such as lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. It is now widely accepted that the interfaces of lithium-ion battery electrode materials can be highly dynamic in nature, and are the source of detrimental effects such as electrolyte decomposition, particle fracturing, crystal phase transformations and other causes of performance fade. The next generation of energy storage devices will be designed and engineered with tailored interfaces, and the cost of ALD on particles has fallen to a price point that is compelling enough to be adopted into product development cycles for mobile and stationary power applications. Here, we will discuss ALD methodologies and best-suited applications in an effort to clarify the most appropriate steps towards the industrialization of an ALD-enabled energy storage future. There are many metrics with which to evaluate the adoption of ALD-enabled particles into any technology, however all can be distilled down to a cost per relevant unit basis. Typically a significant amount of technological input is required from the value chain to formulate the ALD value proposition in an unbiased manner. In the case of energy storage applications, the final product must have a justifiably lower cost per energy unit per charge/discharge cycle, or $/Wh/cycle. For batteries, in order to arrive at the cost savings attributable to tailored interfaces, consideration must be given to the following three stages of ALD development: Discovery and Demonstration - Determining the optimal ALD method and/or chemistry in coin and/or small pouch cells, and validating performance in cells of appropriate size and format for the market segment. Pack/Module Performance – Comparing ALD-enabled battery performance to its base competitor battery Manufacturing Considerations – Quantifying materials, labor and capital costs required to implement the optimized ALD process into a battery manufacturing line and manufacturing risks associated with how the ALD process is implemented Ultimately the scientific and industrial community alike have still only scratched the surface of the ALD-enabled energy storage story. Conventional ALD coatings such as Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 and ZnO have shown tremendous promise, while next generation coatings that have atomically-precise tailored compositions or morphologies remain under development. Next generation coatings that can deliver higher conductivities suitable for advanced batteries can remove the perceived tradeoff between barrier coatings and performance. ALD is a means to engineer an energy storage future on an atomic level, with the potential for revolutionizing the battery as we know it, and having the potential to significantly impact other energy storage and generation systems.

The benefits of producing tailored interfaces using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique have been widely demonstrated in the field of energy storage. As mobility and portability requirements grow, so does the need for higher energy density materials, higher power density systems, and enhanced lifecycles of devices, all of which create additional stresses at interfaces within energy storage modules such as lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, and supercapacitors. It is now widely accepted that the interfaces of lithium-ion battery electrode materials can be highly dynamic in nature, and are the source of detrimental effects such as electrolyte decomposition, particle fracturing, crystal phase transformations and other causes of performance fade. The next generation of energy storage devices will be designed and engineered with tailored interfaces, and the cost of ALD has fallen to a price point that is compelling enough to be adopted into product development cycles for mobile and stationary power applications. As it pertains to secondary battery technologies, there exist two distinct approaches for how to apply ALD onto cathodes and anodes, namely particle coating and electrode coating. From an electrode-electrolyte interface perspective, the features and benefits of ALD on particles (ALDP) and ALD on Electrodes (ALDE) may appear to be similar, however the implications on when and how these coatings can be industrialized within the value chain are drastically different, resulting in different cost metrics and scaling requirements and accompany different manufacturing risks. Here, we will discuss ALD methodologies and best-suited applications in an effort to clarify the most appropriate steps towards the industrialization of an ALD-enabled energy storage future. There are many metrics with which to evaluate the adoption of ALD into any technology, however all can be distilled down to a cost per relevant unit basis. Typically a significant amount of technological input is required from the value chain to formulate the ALD value proposition in an unbiased manner. In the case of energy storage applications, the final product must have a justifiably lower cost per energy unit per charge/discharge cycle, or $/Wh/cycle. For batteries, in order to arrive at the cost savings attributable to tailored interfaces, consideration must be given to the following three stages of ALD development: Discovery and Demonstration - Determining the optimal ALD method and/or chemistry in coin and/or small pouch cells, and validating performance in cells of appropriate size and format for the market segment. Pack/Module Performance – Comparing ALD-enabled battery performance to its base competitor battery Manufacturing Considerations – Quantifying materials, labor and capital costs required to implement the optimized ALD process into a battery manufacturing line and manufacturing risks associated with how the ALD process is implemented There has been increasing attention placed on whether ALDP or ALDE is ‘better’ from a performance perspective without fully quantifying all facets of performance, what performance benefits are of value to particular applications, and costs and risks to deliver these benefits to the marketplace. It is hypothesized that a majority of this attention stems from the different goals being sought by academic institutions as compared to industrial entities. For example, ALDE experimentation may be better aligned with the objectives of an academic institution or research-based facility whose focus may be discovery/exploration relying on small quantities of material. In such a research based scenario, ALDE facilitates rapid and comparable data collection as one electrode can be sectioned and used for a panel of chemistry/coating conditions which coincides well with early stage “Discovery and Demonstration” above. Conversely, a company seeking to produce and sell batteries will be more focused on “Pack/Module Performance” and “Manufacturing Considerations” as these will determine if a particular technology has a value proposition that can be brought to market. In this particular scenario ALDP would be the best avenue as it lends more readily to the production of commercial scale quantities of material. Ultimately the scientific and industrial community alike have still only scratched the surface of the ALD-enabled energy storage story. Conventional ALD coatings such as Al2O3, TiO2 and ZnO have shown tremendous promise using both ALDP and ALDE approaches, but next generation coatings that have atomically-precise tailored compositions or morphologies are under development that remove the tradeoff between barrier coatings and performance, providing for higher conductivities suitable for advanced batteries. ALD is a means to engineer an energy storage future on an atomic level, with the potential for revolutionizing the battery as we know it, and having the potential to significantly impact other energy storage and generation systems.

This research investigated new materials and improvements to the performance of solid state batteries in order to achieve high performance, but with acute attention to safety and manufacturability. It is widely known that liquid-based lithium-ion batteries maintain inherent safety problems on account of solvent leakage and flammability of liquid electrolytes used in commercial lithium-ion batteries. 1,2 Additionally, liquid-electrolyte-containing lithium-ion batteries must be constructed in such a way to account for their inherent danger, requiring excess weight in safety containment materials, which diminishes their overall energy density and adds to manufacturing costs. In contrast to commercialized liquid-electrolyte-based lithium-ion batteries, all-solid-state batteries offer ultimate safety and potential for high energy/power density due to increased packing efficiency in final battery designs with the elimination of unnecessary safety equipment. 3,4 Unfortunately current research and development efforts have yet to unveil an all-solid-state battery that can fulfill all metrics for world-wide replacement of liquid-electrolyte based lithium-ion batteries. The key issue blocking commercial-scale deployment of all-solid-state batteries is not a lack of capable bulk materials to construct the batteries; but the interfacial reactions that happen between materials within the battery in contact with one-another that prevent maintained high performance. All-solid-state secondary batteries employing inorganic solid state electrolytes (SEs) offer a significant, inherent safety advantage over conventional liquid-electrolyte-containing batteries making them highly desirable for next generation energy storage. Key to the ultimate safety of all-solid-state secondary batteries is the SE which functions electrochemically and structurally within the battery. Much effort has gone into developing new SEs with excellent electrochemical characteristics such as high ionic conductivity and high voltage chemical stability, as well as into its structural role as the battery separator. Until recently, commercialization of all-solid-state secondary batteries has not been possible due to low conductivity of the SE as compared to batteries with liquid electrolyte. However, numerous groups have demonstrated SEs with high ionic conductivity on the order of 10 -4 -10 -2 S cm -1 which engenders the opportunity for parallel performance between all-solid-state batteries and conventional batteries. As a final hurdle to realistically enable all-solid-state batteries as a viable, commercializable energy source it is critical to resolve the chemical instability between the SE and bulk electrode materials contained within batteries. It is now widely accepted that the interfaces of lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrode materials can be highly dynamic in nature, and are the source of performance fade problems as well as safety issues. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has been widely demonstrated as an elegant technique for addressing the shortcomings of battery performance, and has recently being demonstrated as a means for enhancing safety. Here, we will discuss recent advances in ALD coatings applied to battery materials which significantly increase the performance as well as safe handling, production, and use of a final batteries.

The fluidization of nanoparticle agglomerates can be largely improved by using downward pointing micronozzles, creating a high-velocity jet, as experimentally shown. By discrete particle simulations – treating the agglomerates as single particles – we show that the microjet strongly reduces the amount of gas in voids.

The energy density of current lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) based on layered LiMO 2 cathodes (M = Ni, Mn, Co: NMC; M = Ni, Co, Al: NCA) needs to be improved significantly in order to compete with internal combustion engines and allow for widespread implementation of electric vehicles (EVs). In this report, we show that atomic layer deposition (ALD) of titania (TiO 2 ) and alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) on Ni-rich FCG NMC and NCA active material particles could substantially improve LIB performance and allow for increased upper cutoff voltage (UCV) during charging, which delivers significantly increased specific energy utilization. Our results show that Al 2 O 3 coating improved the NMC cycling performance by 40% and the NCA cycling performance by 34% at 1 C/−1 C with respectively 4.35 V and 4.4 V UCV in 2 Ah pouch cells. High resolution TEM/SAED structural characterization revealed that Al 2 O 3 coatings prevented surface-initiated layered-to-spinel phase transitions in coated materials which were prevalent in uncoated materials. EIS confirmed that Al 2 O 3 -coated materials had significantly lower increase in the charge transfer component of impedance during cycling. The ability to mitigate degradation mechanisms for Ni-rich NMC and NCA illustrated in this report provides insight into a method to enable the performance of high-voltage LIBs.

Low cost, high energy and long cycle life Lithium-ion batteries are the technology of choice widespread implementation of high-performance electric vehicles (EVs). In spite of the strides technology has made, current high energy density solutions suffer from well understood and catastrophic degradation mechanisms that have prevented the full fruition of NCA cathode materials. There is growing evidence that the cathode surface is the initiation site of all the above mechanisms, motivating the use of larger particle sizes to minimize surface area and mitigate degradation. However, larger particle sizes decrease the overall rate of diffusion of lithium ions, causing a loss of activation of Li-rich phases and an increased loss of capacity at higher rates. Here we show that Al 2 O 3 and TiO 2 ALD coatings applied to NCA powder, completely covering active material particle surfaces, create a cathode artificial SEI layer which facilitates an improved Li-ion diffusion pathway, increasing the rate capability of NCA cathodes even with larger particle sizes. Electrochemical analyses showed increased rate capability in 95x64 mm pouch cells (~2.5Ah) with coated NCA compared to uncoated, and XRD and TEM were used to characterize the underlying favorable interactions of coatings with the cathode surface. XALT Energy’s integrated cell design and manufacturing makes 95x64 mm cell performance representative of large format (216x216 mm) production EV cells, demonstrating the validity and scalability of this approach.

It is now widely accepted that both high-end (Gen 3 materials) and low-end (e.g. Gen 1-2 LiCoO2, NCA, NMC, etc.) electrode powders alike can benefit from surface coatings as a means to provide an optimized interfacial transition between the electrode and the electrolyte, independent of type of battery or system. In spite of the significant public and private investment in new battery materials, efforts on those that are under development today still tend to focus on features and attributes of the bulk materials. Significant cost savings can be realized without sacrificing performance by encapsulating today’s materials with coatings tailored to improve the electrode-electrolyte interface. The two primary surface coating technologies that have been studied are Co-Precipitation (CP) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), with results showing significant favor to ALD as shown in Figure 1. ALD coatings, which can be optimized for each system for composition, thickness, and uniformity, have been proven to reduce capacity fade with cycling, improve thermal stability, allow for safe charging to higher voltages, and reduce degradation under high temperature storage. These coatings can also reduce costs by eliminating the need for overbuilding, and be done without affecting capacity or internal resistivity. ALD has found enormous application in the semiconductor industry owing to its conformal sub-nanometer thickness deposition capability, but until recently has been regarded as non-scalable technology for powder materials due to excessive capital cost of processing. Early research on ALD applications for batteries focused on coatings for electrodes with a drive toward roll-to-roll processing. However, through significant effort it has been determined that roll-to-roll processing of battery electrodes via ALD is prohibitively expensive. Particle ALD has been extensively studied as well and shown improved performance of battery materials comparable to electrode-ALD improvements, and in many cases shown even greater performance enhancement. Similar to electrode-ALD coating however, particle-ALD has remained a small scale laboratory-only research tool due to of the inability to scale-up the primary processing technique, which is a vacuum fluidized bed reactor. Even though ALD as a process has been proven to impart significant benefit to batteries materials, the capital cost of commercial scale production has to-date prevented its widespread adoption. To remove the cost barrier of ALD-enabled batteries, PneumatiCoat Technologies (PCT) has developed a semi-continuous high throughput particle-ALD (HTP-ALD) pilot plant which has demonstrated the capability to meet the needs of commercial demand for battery materials with little increase in at-scale cost per kg of battery materials. PCT has refined and validated a pilot-scale high throughput ALD coating system capable of 200kg/day scale, for Li-ion cathode powders that can meet the automotive industry mandate of low add-on cost (at scale). The price point attainable with PCT’s high throughput gas-phase processing is significantly cheaper than even the most generous projections for manufacturing liquid-phase co-precipitation techniques ($3-5/kg) or batch-based ALD systems ($7-10/kg). Equally as important as meeting cost and performance criteria, PCT has demonstrated the semi-continuous technology to be capable of producing materials with a high degree of repeatability, a factor not often found with fluidized bed treatments and lab scale systems. Figure 2 shows a radar plot for 35 sub-batches of material coated using an early prototype of PCT’s original semi-continuous HTP-ALD system. The HTP-ALD pilot plant is also designed for plug-and-play scale-up capability in which simply making components larger or setting up automatic feeding systems will allow for nearly any desired level of production using existing powder processing techniques. With the PCT pilot plant meeting projected cost targets and capability for producing high quality materials at pilot scale, the barriers to commercial scale ALD-enabled batteries have been greatly reduced. Ultimately this technology will allow battery manufacturers to eliminate the embedded costs of overbuilding, and these higher performance materials can be adopted at lower net cost and thereby reduce the cell and pack level $/kWh. Figure 1

Low cost, high energy and long cycle life Lithium-ion batteries are the technology of choice widespread implementation of high-performance electric vehicles (EVs). In spite of the strides technology has made, current high energy density solutions suffer from well understood and catastrophic degradation mechanisms that have prevented to full fruition of lithium- and manganese-rich NMC cathode materials. Capacity, power, and voltage fade, excessive SEI growth, electrolyte oxidation, cathode dissolution, structural degradation, and phase transformations are only few of the mechanisms that have been identified. Layered-to-spinel phase transformations at high voltages (~4.8 V), are a main contributor to voltage fade in LMR-NMC-based batteries. Here we show that TiO2 and Al2O3 atomic layer deposition (ALD) coatings applied to NMC powder, conformally coating active material particle surfaces, create a cathode artificial SEI layer which alters and slows the chemical pathways for nucleation and propagation of layered-to-spinel phase transformations at high voltages. XRD, TEM, and magnetic susceptibility characterization of active materials before cycling and at end of cycle life in 95x64 mm pouch cells (~2.5Ah) showed decreased extent of phase transformation with coated NMC compared to uncoated. XALT Energy’s integrated cell design and manufacturing makes 95x64 mm cell performance representative of large format (216x216 mm) production EV cells, demonstrating the validity and scalability of this approach.

Ultra-thin films can be coated on primary fine particles without significant aggregation by atomic layer deposition (ALD) in a fluidized bed reactor. Precursor doses can be delivered to the bed of particles sequentially and, in most cases, can be utilized at nearly 100% efficiency without precursor breakthrough and loss, with the assistance of an inline downstream mass spectrometer. A multitude of applications can be addressed in a competitive fashion using fine particles that have been surface-modified using ALD in scalable, high-throughput unit operations. Several examples of the applications of conformal ALD coatings have been discussed, including oxidation-resistant metals or ceramics, coatings that enable biomedical applications including tissue engineering, and corrosion-resistant particles for next-generation batteries, capacitors or fuel cells. It is expected that the technology of thin film coating by particle ALD will play a major role in the field of advanced materials.

Graphite particles have been coated with Al2O3 via atomic layer deposition. Alumina content was measured via inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP), LECO combustion analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). While alumina was present, adherence was limited, and nonconformal films were deposited on the graphite particles. Coatings produced changes in particle interactions and dispersability. These changes were observed via sedimentation rates of particle suspensions in water, Zeta potential values, and particle size distributions. Alumina‐Graphite composites were sintered using coated and uncoated particles. Differences in bulk thermal properties are ascribed to enhanced dispersability of the coated particles in presintered powder mixtures. EDS mapping of the sintered composites confirms the enhanced dispersion of the coated graphite particles. Particle coating through atomic layer deposition provides a means to improve particle dispersion with low material loadings. It has been shown that changes in particle interaction characteristics can be achieved even without uniform and conformal coatings. These particle interaction changes can result in sintered composites with enhanced thermal properties.

Highly structured porous alumina thin films have many practical uses, including membrane applications and catalyst encapsulation. One route to synthesizing these films that offers exceptional control over film thickness to several angstroms starts with the molecular layer deposition (MLD) of an aluminum alkoxide (alucone) film. Oxidizing the alucone film removes the organic component and produces the desired nanoporous alumina. The pore size can be controlled by selection of the length of the carbon chain in the polymer film. In this study, 500nm silica nanoparticles were coated with 10–40cycles of alucone using a three-step ABC MLD process. Trimethylaluminum, ethanolamine, and maleic anhydride were used as precursors. The organic component of the alucone films was removed in air by calcination at elevated temperature or in water at room temperature. It is shown that the pore size of the porous films can be increased from 0.6 to 0.8nm by depositing an alucone film having longer carbon chains. Film surface area, composition, thickness, and pore size were measured, confirming that the ABC MLD process can produce high quality porous alumina films and provide a pathway to tune nanopore size in these films.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been used to deposit ceramic films on the surfaces of particles to improve the slurry and dry powder rheology of bulk powders. An overview of several studies is presented here, which demonstrates the extent and limitations for this ceramic coating platform technology to improve the tribological and/or flow properties of microfine and ultrafine particles. Direct evidence of the effect of the nanoscale ceramic coatings is shown via a significant improvement in flow properties of dry particles, including dynamic, bulk and shear properties obtained using a FT4 Powder Rheometer, and a marked reduction in slurry viscosity at high solids loadings. Microfine zinc powders, similar to those used in alkaline batteries, have been coated using boron nitride ALD films of sub-nanometer thickness, or about 0.1wt.%. The low surface energy coatings reduced the cohesion of 1–5μm particles by 52%. A highly-loaded slurry of the same material in concentrated KOH showed a 10–30% reduction in slurry viscosity over a range of shear rates, with a shear-thinning effect at high shear rates. Boron nitride platelets were coated using Al2O3 and SiO2 films to change the surface properties from hydrophobic to hydrophilic. The coated and uncoated powders were dispersed into an epoxy to evaluate the solids loading to viscosity ratio. The ALD films improved the particle–resin adhesion and decreased the viscosity of equivalently-loaded slurry of uncoated powder. Coated microfine nickel, aluminum and iron powders were also dispersed into epoxies, and lower viscosities and yield stresses were observed due to ceramic–epoxy interactions being more favorable than metallic–epoxy interactions. The ALD platform can be used to modify surfaces of primary particles in order to change the interparticle and particle–liquid forces, which provides a lubricating effect without detracting from the bulk properties of the core particles themselves.