Influence of Binders, Carbons, and Solvents on the Stability of Phosphorus Anodes for Li-ion Batteries

Phosphorus (P) is an abundant element that exhibits one of the highest gravimetric and volumetric capacities for Li storage, making it a potentially attractive anode material for high capacity Li-ion batteries. However, while phosphorus carbon composite anodes have been previously explored, the influence of the inactive materials on electrode cycle performance is still poorly understood. Here, we report and explain the significant impacts of polymer binder chemistry, carbon conductive additives, and an underlayer between the Al current collector and ball milled P electrodes on cell stability. We focused our study on the commonly used polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) binders as well as exfoliated graphite (ExG) and carbon nanotube (CNT) additives. The mechanical properties of the binders were found to change drastically because of interactions with both the slurry and electrolyte solvents, significantly effecting the electrochenlical cycle stability of the electrodes. Binder adhesion was also found to be critical in achieving stable electrochemical cycling. The best anodes demonstrated similar to 1400 mAh/g-P gravimetric capacity after 200 cycles at C/2 rates in Li half cells.