Performance Enhancement of Li4Ti5O12 and Si/C Electrodes Using Graphene/CMC Conductive Composite Binder

Lithium titanium oxide (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂, LTO) is a prospective anode material for high-powered and long-lasting Lithium Ion Batteries (LIBs) due to its fast cycle reversibility and zero-strain during charge/discharge processes. Despite these advantages, there is a major drawback that LTO has low electrical conductivity, leading to relatively worse performance at high current rates[1].

Another promising anode material for LIBs is silicon due to its very high capacity of 4200 mAh/g. However, the critical defect of silicon is huge volumetric change during charge/discharge processes, ultimately resulting in the isolation of silicon from conductive materials.

In order to overcome these problems, we try to enhance electrical conductivity of LTO and Si electrodes using a conductive composite binder, graphene/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC). To evaluate the effect of the conductive composite binder, physical and electrochemical characteristics have been tested by FT-IR, cycle performance, rate capability, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), and so on.

 

Reference

1. Sang-Wook Han, So-Jin Kim, and Eun-Suok Oh, Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 161 (4) A587-A592 (2014)