Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Multifunctional conductive binders represent an emerging class of polymer materials to address inherent challenges of Si electrodes for high capacity lithium-ion batteries. Advanced binders with oriented functionalities are greatly desired to facilitate the battery chemistry. We here report stable capacity cycling of a practical composite anode comprising industrial available SiOx (>60 wt%), carbon materials and a conductive polymer binder—poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-co-fluorenonecomethylbenzoic ester) (PFM). This multifunctional polymer functions as both an interface modifier and an electrode binder for high-performing SiOx composite electrodes. The viability of multifunctional conductive polymer binders was further validated in a practical full cell.