Design of Flexible and Self-Standing Electrodes for Li-Ion Batteries

Flexible portable electronic devices have attracted increasing attention during the last decade. Energy consumption of such devices is ever increasing and performing power sources, that are moreover flexible, need to be developed to seamlessly integrate into such architectures. While lithium-ion batteries appear to be the best solution to meet the power and energy requirements, their structural and mechanical considerations still need to be addressed. Here, we realize and study the impact on the electrochemical performances of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based, current collector-free and binder-free, Li-ion battery electrodes. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes acting as a mechanical and electron conductive scaffold enable structural flexibility and good electrochemical performances. Flexible Li-ion cells made with such electrodes show promising performances while being realized through simple manufacturing approaches.