New multifunctional polymer binder achieves theoretical capacity of LiFePO4 Li-ion batteries without additives
15 June 2015
Researchers led by a team from Griffith University in Australia have developed a multifunctional polymer binder that not only maintains the outstanding binding capabilities of sodium alginate but also enhances the mechanical integrity and lithium-ion diffusion coefficient in a LiFePO4 (LFP) electrode during the operation of the batteries.
As reported in a paper in the ACS journal Nano Letters, batteries constructed using the binder, without the need of conductive additives such as carbon black, achieved the theoretical specific capacity of the LiFePO4 cathode (ca. 170 mAh/g) at C/10 and around 120 mAh/g at 1C for more than 400 cycles.
To create the multifunctional polymer binder, the researchers functionalized the naturally occurring binder sodium alginate (SA) with 3,4-propylenedioxythiophene-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (ProDOT) via a one-step esterification reaction in a cyclohexane/dodecyl benzenesulfonic acid (DBSA)/water microemulsion system, resulting in the SA-PProDOT system.
The SA-PProDOT system is environmentally benign, highly conductive, mechanically strong and low cost.
Resources
Min Ling, Jingxia Qiu, Sheng Li, Cheng Yan, Milton J. Kiefel, Gao Liu, and Shanqing Zhang (2015) “Multifunctional SA-PProDOT Binder for Lithium Ion Batteries” Nano Letters doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b00795
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