Graphene foil as a current collector for NCM material-based cathodes

Huailiang Xu; Hongchang Jin; Zhikai Qi; Yue Guo; Jinxi Wang; Yanwu Zhu; Hengxing Ji

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ab72ba

Graphene foil as a current collector for NCM material-based cathodes

Nanotechnology. 2020 May 15;31(20):205710. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab72ba. Epub 2020 Feb 4.

Authors

Huailiang Xu¹, Hongchang Jin, Zhikai Qi, Yue Guo, Jinxi Wang, Yanwu Zhu, Hengxing Ji

Affiliation

¹ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Department of Applied Chemistry, CAS Key Laboratory of Materials for Energy Conversion, iChEM (Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials), University of Science and Technology of China. Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 32018236
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab72ba

Abstract

When used as a current collector, aluminum foil (AF) is vulnerable to local anodic corrosion during the charge/discharge process, which can lead to the deterioration of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a graphene foil (GF) with high electrical conductivity (∼5800 S cm^-1) and low mass density (1.80 g cm^-3) was prepared by reduction of graphene oxide foil with ultra-high temperature (2800 °C) annealing, and it exhibited significantly anodic corrosion resistance when serving as a current collector. Moreover, a LiNi_0.5Co_0.2Mn_0.3O₂ (NCM523) cathode using GF as a current collector (NCM523/GF) demonstrated a gravimetric capacity of 137.3 mAh g^-1 at 0.5 C based on the mass of the whole electrode consisting of the active material, carbon black, binder, and the current collector, which is 44.5% higher than that of the NCM523/AF electrode. Furthermore, the NCM523/GF electrode retains higher capacity at relatively faster rates, from 0.1 C to 5.0 C. Therefore, GF, a lightweight corrosion-resistant current collector, is expected to replace the current commercial metal current collectors in LIBs and to achieve high energy-density batteries.