Exploiting
macromolecule binders has been demonstrated as an effective
approach to stabilize a Si anode with a huge volume change. The macromolecule
polymer binders with vast intra/intermolecular interactions lead to
an inferior dispersion of binders on a Si active material. Herein,
a potassium triphosphate (PTP) inorganic oligomer was exploited as
a robust binder to alleviate the problem of capacity fading in Si-based
electrodes. PTP has abundant P–O– bonds and
PO bonds, which can form strong ion–dipolar and dipolar–dipolar
forces with a hydroxylated Si surface (Si–OH). Particularly,
the PTP inorganic oligomer has a short-chain structure and high water
solubility, resulting in a superior dispersion of the PTP binder on
Si nanoparticles (nano-Si) to effectively enhance the mechanical stability
of Si-based electrodes. Hence, the as-prepared Si-based anode exhibits
obviously improved electrochemical performance, delivering a charge
capacity of 1279.7 mAh g–1 after 300 cycles at 800
mA g–1 with a high capacity retention of 72.7%.
Moreover, using the PTP binder, a dense Si anode can be achieved for
high volumetric energy density. The success of this study shows that
the PTP inorganic oligomer as a binder has great significance for
future advanced binder research.
Lithium–sulfur
(Li–S) batteries have been
limited
by their poor electrochemical performance due to the large volume
change and severe shuttle effect during cycling. Binders serve as
an essential role in sulfur electrodes and can stabilize the mechanical
integrity of the electrode. It also has been demonstrated that designing
strong-affinity binders is a feasible and facile method to suppress
the shuttle effect. Therefore, in this work a strong-affinity elastic
network binder is designed for high-performance Li–S battery
coupling with tannic acid (TA) and polyurethane (PU). Firstly, the
rich hydrogen bonds between TA and PU result in a mechanically robust
network to keep the sulfur electrode from cracking in the cycling
process. Secondly, the selected TA with abundant phenolic hydroxyl
groups possesses strong adsorption capability toward polysulfides,
which can efficiently restrain the shuttle effect. Hence, the cycling
stability of Li–S batteries using P1T1 binder is significantly
improved, maintaining the capacity of 602.5 mAh g–1 after 500 cycles at the current density of 0.5 C.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.