Lithium-ion modified cellulose as a water-soluble binder for Li-O₂ battery

Abstract

An environment-friendly, water-soluble, and cellulose based binder (lithium carboxymethyl cellulose, CMC-Li) was successfully synthesized by using Li⁺ to replace Na⁺ in the commercial sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC-Na). Li-O₂ batteries based on the CMC-Li binder present enhanced discharge specific capacities (11151 mA·h/g at 100 mA/g) and a superior cycling stability (100 cycles at 200 mA/g) compared with those based on the CMC-Na binder. The enhanced performance may originate from the electrochemical stability of the CMC-Li binder and the ion-conductive nature of CMC-Li, which promotes the diffusion of Li⁺ in the cathode and consequently retards the increase of charge transfer resistance of the cathode during cycling. The results show that the water-soluble CMC-Li binder can be a green substitute for poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) binder based on organic solvent in the lithium oxygen batteries (LOBs).

Graphical abstract

Keywords

cellulose / binder / specific capacity / cyclabi- lity / lithium-oxygen batteries

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21503134 and 21533005), and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0101201).

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