Wood-based Materials for Lithium-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have become very important recently as power sources for portable electronics and electric vehicles. Today non-renewable petroleum-based polymers are used as binders in state-of-the-art LIB. Therefore, it is essential to investigate alternative binders, which are environmentally friendly and inexpensive. Using wood-based materials, such as cellulose and lignin, could make the batteries more environmentally benign, cheaper and easier to produce. Lignin, a byproduct from the pulping industry and the second most abundant bio-polymer in wood, has been investigated for the first time as binder material for eco-friendly LIB. Both LiFePO4 (LFP) positive and graphite negative electrodes using pretreated lignin as binder exhibited good electrochemical performance. The drawback of lignin as binder is that its poor mechanical properties limit the preparation of a thick electrode, constraining the energy density for LIB. In order to meet the demands of flexible and bendable electronic devices, cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) as binder materials have been successfully fabricated for flexible batteries by a water-based paper making process. It showed excellent binding properties for different kinds of electrode materials, which were homogenously dispersed in its visible network. The flexible electrodes obtained good mechanical and electrochemical properties. A study of different CNF shows that the manufacturing process affects the performance of the electrodes. Another innovative LIB concept in this thesis was to build both lightweight and bendable LIB. Chopped carbon fibers (CF), bound by CNF, were demonstrated as both current collector and as a current collector-free negative electrode, produced by an easy filtration process. The gravimetric energy density was increased compared to cells with metallic current collectors. The CF-based lightweight and flexible electrode achieved a good cycling stability, rate capability, even after 4000 times of bending.QC 20170421