Natural cellulose as binder for lithium battery electrodes

This manuscript reports on the development of lithium-ion battery electrodes based on natural cellulose as the binder. In particular, the cellulose binder is dissolved into fully recyclable ionic liquid to make volatile solvent-free slurries, which are coated on typical battery current collectors. Finally, the ionic liquid solvent is removed by a phase inversion process using water as the co-solvent. In such a way, electrodes can be prepared without using polluting volatile organic compounds. Full lithium-ion cells were made using graphite (SLP30) and carbon coated lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, LFP) as active materials and 1 M LiPF6 in EC-DEC (3:7 wt. ratio) based electrolyte. The lithium ion cells showed a stable specific capacity of 123 mAh per gram of LiFePO4 at room temperature. This promising result shows that natural cellulose dissolved in a non-volatile ionic liquid can be used to manufacture battery electrodes thus providing new greener opportunities for the lithium-ion battery technology.

► Natural cellulose as binder in lithium battery electrodes.
► Organic solvent-free processing.
► Development of lower cost and greener Li battery technology.