This technology is a water-based binder that secures water solubility by grafting gallic acid onto the side chains of a chitosan backbone. It induces self-crosslinking and hydrogen bonding between the gallol groups of the gallic acid to suppress the volume expansion of silicone anodes and enhance adhesion.
Silicone anodes have historically faced issues with electrode pulverization and capacity degradation due to rapid volume expansion exceeding 300% during charge and discharge cycles. Furthermore, conventional chitosan binders have low solubility in neutral or basic solutions, requiring them to be handled under acidic conditions.
This technology uses a hydrogen peroxide/L-ascorbic acid (H2O2/AA) redox system for free-radical grafting to bond gallic acid to chitosan, allowing the resulting gallic acid-grafted chitosan (CS-g-GA) copolymer to form a gallol-based 3D crosslinked network. This copolymer is highly water-soluble and maintains stable adhesion and electrical contact between silicone particles and the current collector. It can be applied by battery manufacturers looking to produce anodes using neutral aqueous slurries without acidic additives, as well as in the development of silicon-graphite composite anodes, reducing concerns about equipment corrosion and allowing for lower electrode resistance through simple adjustment of the gallic acid content.
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