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).

Key words： cellulose; binder; specific capacity; cyclabi- lity; lithium-oxygen batteries

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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