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Lithium-ion batteries

Heating up the binder

Nature Energy volume 8, pages 113–114 (2023)Cite this article

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Silicon-based anodes suffer from immense volume change and cracks during battery operations, limiting cycling stability. Now, a hierarchically-ordered conductive binder network — formed in situ upon thermal treatment of anodes containing conducting polymer precursors — can improve charge-transport and mechanical properties, and thus cyclability.

As a next-generation lithium-ion battery anode, silicon (Si) offers over 10 times higher capacity than graphite. However, the massive volume change of Si (up to ~300%) during alloying (lithiation) and dealloying (delithiation) causes particle pulverization, electrode delamination, and unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation1, which leads to performance deterioration. Binders could play an essential role to maintain the morphology of Si anodes and provide strong adhesion between the anode components. This is different from graphite anodes where the volume change is not significant. Indeed, it has already been shown that elastic binders based on insulating mechanically-interlocked polymers are capable of dissipating mechanical stress. They can effectively maintain the anode morphology, while assisting the formation of a robust SEI to realize stable cycling even for Si microparticle-based anodes at commercial-level loadings2. However, the realization of such an effect with conducting polymer binders has been rather challenging, yet desirable to reduce the amount of inactive components in the electrode and thus increase attainable capacity, owing to their highly rigid structures.

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Fig. 1: Packing evolution of conductive polymer.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Yan Zhao & Ali Coskun

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  1. Yan Zhao
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  2. Ali Coskun
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Correspondence to Ali Coskun.

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Zhao, Y., Coskun, A. Heating up the binder. Nat Energy 8, 113–114 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01190-8

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