Performance of various rosin-derivatives as binder additives for lithium titanium oxide anodes

In our recent work, we demonstrated that the use of bio-derived rosin as a binder additive could improve the electrochemical performance of lithium titanium oxide (LTO) anodes. As a sequential study, four representative modified rosin-derivatives are used as additives for polyvinylidene difluoride (PVdF) binders in order to further improve the cell performance of LTO electrodes. The rosin derivative modified via simple hydrogenation retains carboxylic acids and is favorable to lithium ion transport when compared to the modified rosins, which loose these functional groups via esterification. The hydrogenated rosin additive increases cyclic capacities, initially by 10 mAh g− 1 and more so at high current charge/discharge rates.