How a very trace amount of graphene additive works for constructing an efficient conductive network in LiCoO2-based lithium-ion batteries. (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tang, Rui; Yun, Qinbai; Lv, Wei; He, Yan-Bing; You, Conghui; Su, Fangyuan; Ke, Lei; Li, Baohua; Kang, Feiyu; Yang, Quan-Hong
• Is Part Of: Carbon. Volume 103(2016)
• Page Start: 356
• Page End: 362
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: Carbon -- Periodicals; Carbone -- Périodiques; Koolstof; Toepassingen; Electronic journals; 546.681
• DOI: 10.1016/j.carbon.2016.03.032
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-6223

Abstract

Abstract: This work demonstrates how a very low fraction of graphene greatly enhances the usage efficiency of carbon-based conductive additive in LiCoO2 -based lithium ion batteries (LIB) and develops a strategy using binary conductive additive to have a high performance battery, especially with excellent rate performance. With a much lower fraction of carbon additive for a commercial LIB, only 0.2 wt% graphene nanosheet (GN) together with 1 wt% Super-P (SP) constructing an effective conductive network, the prepared battery exhibits outstanding cycling stability (146 mAhg −1 at 1C with retention of 96.4% after 50 cycles) and rate capability (116.5 mAhg −1 even at 5C). In this battery, a composite conducting network is formed with a long-range electron pathway formed by a trace amount of GN and the short-range electron pathway by aggregation of SP particles. More interestingly, in micro-sized LiCoO2 system, the GN additive does not present hindrance effect for lithium ion transport even in high rate discharge, which is entirely different from the nano-sized LiFePO4 system. This study further demonstrates commercial potential of GN additive for high performance LIB and more importantly gives a well-designed recipe for its real application.