In the past decades, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) experienced a long lasting of successful improvement, which make LIBs be a universal technology. In a negative electrode, it is sure that graphite as an active material drove large part of this success. As an efficient strategy to enhance the performance improvement of the negative electrode, various electrode parts such as active material, conductive agent, binder and electrolytes have been widely studied.

Polymeric binder as an inactive component does not involve in the electrochemical reactions of secondary rechargeable batteries. However, it contributes greatly to the performance of electrodes with maintaining stable electrochemical reaction due to their good mechanical and chemical stability. In particular, silicon anode material experiences huge volume changes during discharge/charge process so that it requires a binder strong enough to undergo the electrode structure.

Polymer latex produced by an emulsion polymerization is an aqueous dispersion of polymer particles stabilized by a common surfactant. As a main polymer latex, core-shell structured polystyrene-poly(acrylonitrile-co-butyl acrylate) (PS-PANBA) is used and this is grafted with a strongly adhesive poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). This new latex is applied to to LIB silicon and graphite anodes. In our preliminary test, PVA incorporated into core-shell structured binder increases adhesion strength between composite layer and the current collector, and decreases interfacial resistance when compared to PS-PANBA. A variety of characterization techniques will be adopted to show the performance of the new binder PS-PANBA-PVA.