Designing polymeric binders for silicon anodes of Lithium Ion batteries

Abstract

The polymeric binder has attracted much attention as a battery’s core component which can extend the cycle life of the lithium ion battery mitigating the extreme volume change of high capacity silicon anode. In this dissertation, the design methodology of ideal polymer binder is presented based on the in-depth analysis of various polymeric binders. First, we proposed a multidimensional interaction available beta-cyclodextrin polymer binder and examined the applicability of xanthan gum with the supramolecular structure as a binder by analyzing representative polysaccharides. In addition, we have investigated the ideal properties of binders by synthesizing polymers containing Meldrum’s acid and applying them as binders. We also proposed a binder system based on the host-guest interaction between the binder and crosslinker and extended the range of the capable interactions in the binders. Moreover, a water-based mucin inspired amphiphilic binder was proposed to contribute to the miscibility between materials with different surface properties. Finally, we designed mussel byssus inspired $catechol-Fe^{3+}$ coordination based flexible binder to enable the self-healing of Si anode.