title: Conducting polymer-skinned electroactive materials of lithium-ion batteries: ready for monocomponent electrodes without additional binders and conductive agents.
abstract: Rapid growth of mobile and even wearable electronics is in pursuit of high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries. One simple and facile way to achieve this goal is the elimination of nonelectroactive components of electrodes such as binders and conductive agents. Here, we present a new concept of monocomponent electrodes comprising solely electroactive materials that are wrapped with an insignificant amount (less than 0.4 wt %) of conducting polymer (PEDOT:PSS or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) doped with poly(styrenesulfonate)). The PEDOT:PSS as an ultraskinny surface layer on electroactive materials (LiCoO2 (LCO) powders are chosen as a model system to explore feasibility of this new concept) successfully acts as a kind of binder as well as mixed (both electrically and ionically) conductive film, playing a key role in enabling the monocomponent electrode. The electric conductivity of the monocomponent LCO cathode is controlled by simply varying the PSS content and also the structural conformation (benzoid-favoring coil structure and quinoid-favoring linear or extended coil structure) of PEDOT in the PEDOT:PSS skin. Notably, a substantial increase in the mass-loading density of the LCO cathode is realized with the PEDOT:PSS skin without sacrificing electronic/ionic transport pathways. We envisage that the PEDOT:PSS-skinned electrode strategy opens a scalable and versatile route for making practically meaningful binder-/conductive agent-free (monocomponent) electrodes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy, Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science, Technology (UNIST) , Ulsan 689-798, Korea.
authors.forename: Ju-Myung
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Han-Saem
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jang-Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Tae-Hee
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Kon
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Sang-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee