A carbon ink for use in thin, conductive, non peelable, amphiphilic, antioxidant, and large-area current collector coating with enhanced lithium ion battery performance

Highly Conductive Ink Based on Self-Aligned Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes through Inter-Fiber Sliding in Cellulose Fibril Networks

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), owing to their superior electrical and mechanical properties, are a promising alternative to nonmetallic electrically conducting materials. In practice, cellulose as a low-cost sustainable matrix has been used to prepare the aqueous dispersion of cellulose-CNT (C-CNT) nanocomposites. However, the compatibility with conventional solution-processing and structural rearrangement for improving conductivity has yet to be determined. Herein, a straightforward route to prepare a conductive composite material from single-walled CNTs (SWCNTs) and natural pulp is reported. High-power shaking realizes the self-alignment of individual SWCNTs in a cellulose matrix, resulting from the structural change in molecular orientations owing to countless collisions of zirconia beads in the aqueous mixture. The structural analysis of the dried C-CNT films confirms that the entanglement and dispersion of C-CNT nanowires determine the mechanical and electrical properties. Moreover, the rheological behavior of C-CNT inks explains their coating and printing characteristics. By controlling shaking time, the electrical conductivity of the C-CNT films with only 9 wt.% of SWCNTs from 0.9 to 102.4 S cm-1 are adjusted. the optimized C-CNT ink is highly compatible with the conventional coating and printing processes on diverse substrates, thus finding potential applications in eco-friendly, highly flexible, and stretchable electrodes is also demonstrated.

Tuning the Covalent Coupling Degree between the Cathode and Electrolyte for Optimized Interfacial Resistance in Solid-State Lithium Batteries

The development of promising solid-state lithium batteries has been a challenging task mainly due to the poor interfacial contact and high interfacial resistance at the electrode/solid-state electrolyte (SSE) interface. Herein, we propose a strategy for introducing a class of covalent interactions with varying covalent coupling degrees at the cathode/SSE interface. This method significantly reduces interfacial impedances by strengthening the interactions between the cathode and SSE. By adjusting the covalent coupling degree from low to high, an optimal interfacial impedance of 33 Ω cm^-2 was achieved, which is even lower than the interfacial impedance using liquid electrolytes (39 Ω cm^-2). This work offers a fresh perspective on solving the interfacial contact problem in solid-state lithium batteries.

Softened Microstructure and Properties of 12 μm Thick Rolled Copper Foil

Up to now, 12 μm thick rolled copper foil is the thinnest rolled copper foil that can be stably produced. The softened microstructure and properties of 12 μm thick rolled copper foil were systematically studied in this paper. The softened process consists of thermal treatment at 180 °C for different times. The results show that the softened annealing texture is mainly cubic texture, and the cubic texture fraction increases with the increase in annealing time. The cubic texture fraction reaches the highest (34.4%) after annealing for 60 min. After annealing for 1–5 min, the tensile strength and the bending times decrease significantly. After annealing for 10–60 min, the tensile strength tends to be stable, and the bending times increase slightly. With the increase in annealing time, the electrical conductivity increases gradually, reaching 92% International Annealed Copper Standard (IACS) after annealing for 60 min. Electrical conductivity can be used as a fast and effective method to analyze the microstructure of metals.