Electrophoretic method for production of thick film lithium iron phosphate electrode without a binder

초록

The growing demand for higher capacity in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS) has become a major driver for advancing battery technology. Recently, efforts have been made to increase the volumetric capacity of battery packs by using thick electrodes. Wet processes using slurry composed of active materials, conductive agents, and binders are commonly employed in electrode production. However, the use of binders reduces the amount of active material and requires additional processing steps during recycling. In this study, electrophoretic deposition (EPD) was applied to fabricate binder-free thick electrodes. The effects of various factors, such as solution composition, applied voltage, voltage waveform types, and deposition time, on the EPD process were investigated. To fabricate electrodes using EPD, aluminum foil was etched to increase its surface area, and a suspension of LFP and CNT dispersed in ethanol was used. The thickness of the electrodes produced by EPD was significantly influenced by the suspension concentration. These binder-free, thick electrodes were applied as the cathode in lithium-ion batteries and compared to electrodes produced using conventional slurry coating methods.