Ultra-high-energy lithium-ion batteries enabled by aligned structured thick electrode design

Excerpt

Battery manufacturing holds great promise to build high-performance electrodes with fine‐controlled microstructure, geometry and thickness. However, thick electrodes face concomitant challenge of the sluggish transport of both electrons and Li ions. Here, we present a thick electrode with an aligned structure, as an alternative to achieve high-energy lithium-ion batteries. The freeze-drying process with the aid of gum binder and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) is originally developed for preparing the LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ (NCM811)-based aligned structured thick electrode as the representative cathode electrode material. The 1-mm-thick cathode with mass loading of 101 mg·cm⁻² achieves a high specific capacity of 203.4 mAh·g⁻¹. Moreover, the as-prepared ultra-thick electrodes with a high mass loading of 538 mg·cm⁻² and high active material content of 99.5 wt% are successfully demonstrated, delivering an extremely high areal capacity of 93.4 mAh·cm⁻², which represents a > 30-times improvement compared to that of the commercial electrode. This design opens an effective avenue for greener, scalable and sustainable manufacturing processes toward energy storage devices and other related practical applications. …