Binary carbon-based additives in LiFePO4 cathode with favorable lithium storage

A pairwise coupling of 0D Super-P (SP), 1D carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and 2D graphene nanosheets (GNs) into binary carbon-based conductive additives was used here for the LiFePO4 cathode in lithium-ion batteries. For comparison, the LiFePO4 cathode with SP, CNT, or GN unitary conductive agent was also examined. Electrochemical test results suggest that the cathodes with binary conducting additives present greatly improved electrochemical performance than the traditional cathode system (only SP used). Especially, the LiFePO4 cathode containing 3% CNT component exhibits the highest specific capacity and the best cycling stability among all the cathodes with binary conducting additives, indicating that an appropriate amount of CNTs is critical in enhancing the conductivity and practical capacity output. However, an excess of CNTs leads to entangling with each other, hampering the uniform distribution of active materials and resulting in poor electrode performance. Furthermore, the combination of CNT and GN can effectively improve the capacity and cycling stability of the LiFePO4 cathodes due to the synergistic effect of 3D conductive networks constructed by the two.