Numerical Design of Microporous Carbon Binder Domains Phase in Composite Cathodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion battery(LIB) performance can be significantly affectedby the nature of the complex electrode microstructure. The carbonbinder domain (CBD) present in almost all LIB electrodes is used toenhance mechanical stability and facilitate electronic conduction,and understanding the CBD phase microstructure and how it affectsthe complex coupled transport processes is crucial to LIB performanceoptimization. In this work, the influence of microporosity in theCBD phase has been studied in detail for the first time, enablinginsight into the relationships between the CBD microstructure andthe battery performance. To investigate the effect of the CBD poresize distributions, a random field method is used to generate in silicoa multiple-phase electrode structure, including bimodal pore sizedistributions seen in practice and microporous CBD with a tunablepore size and variable transport properties. The distribution of macroporesand the microporous CBD phase substantially affected simulated batteryperformance, where battery specific capacity improved as the microporosityof the CBD phase increased.