Benefits of Water-Based Binder Electrodes for Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Leclanché implements the innovative water-based production process; applied to all cell electrodes, it results in cost effective large format 30Ah LTO- and 43 Ah graphite-based cells, while minimizing environmental impact of manufacturing and ensuring very high cell performances and lifetime stability. Some of the benefits of water-based binder electrodes are: No more usage of organic (toxic) solvents in the mixing and coating processes. Reduced manufacturing cost of aqueous vs. solvent processing. Elimination of expensive solvent recovery steps, reduction of capital cost for coating equipment and elimination of expensive inactive components. Simplification of machinery (no EX requirements). Machinery size reduction (water extraction is faster than NMP one, therefore the drying section for coating line is reduced). Fast drying speed and low drying temperature require less electric power and yield to higher production rate. No dry room required for cell assembly, only humidity control is required during electrolyte filling, etc. The innovative high-quality manufactured electrodes lead to very high mechanical and electrochemical stability during cycling, e.g. Leclanché large-capacity LTO lithium-ion batteries allow for tenths of thousands full-DoD cycles to be reached, even in highly demanding conditions (see Fig.1). The lifetime estimation exceeds 20.000 cycles and is little affected by C-rate. Fig. 1: Lifetime characteristics at RT (21°C); influence of C-rate and lifetime estimation of 16 Ah cell Figure 1