The Influence of Water in Montmorillonite Clay on the Performance As Electrode Material for Li-Ion Battery/Capacitor

Recently, 2D materials have attracted great attention as electrode materials for lithium ion batteries due to their special electochemical properties. Clays are nature abundant materials which have 2D layered structures. Montmorillonite (MMT) is one of them and composed of units made up of two silica tetrahedral sheets with a central alumina octahedral sheet. The cation and water content in inter layer varies with source. Unlike graphene related materials, electrochemical properties of MMT has rarely been studied. Our recent research shows that MMT could be used as a green electrode material for Li-ion battery/capacitor. Here in this study, we will exam the influence of water in MMT clay on the electrochemical performance.

The performance of various status of MMT, in nature or dehydrated, will be exam. Conductive agent will also be added to improve conductivity of MMT electrode. Both traditional slurry casting and electrostatic spray deposition (ESD) will be used to fabricate the electrode. Fig. 1(a) shows the TEM image of nature MMT clay and (b) cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves of slurry casting MMT electrode. More detailed results will be shown during the meeting.