An Aqueous Alginate-based Binder Modified with Zn2+ Ions and Prussian Blue Analogues for Enhanced Silicon Anodes

In this work, an aqueous three-dimensional (3D) crosslinked alginate-Zn-Prussian blue analogue (Alg-Zn-PBAs) binder with improved mechanical property has been constructed for Si anodes. The Alg-Zn-PBAs aqueous binder is fabricated via Zn2+ ion-induced co-precipitation reaction of PBAs nanoparticles and ionic crosslinking reaction of Alg-Zn network. The anchored PBAs nanoparticles can be formed around the Zn2+ ions and offer enhanced stability due to their strong supramolecular interactions to the Alg-Zn matrix. Consequently, the Si anodes using Alg-Zn-PBAs binder exhibits a capacity of 1372.9 mAh g(-1) for 200 cycles at 0.84 A g(-1) and a higher capacity when compared to electrodes fabricated by using Alg-Zn binder and Alg binder. This work demonstrates that the combination of PBAs and alginate via an one-step process of Zn2+ ions induced co-precipitation reaction is a better design of aqueous binders for lithium-ion batteries system with a green synthetic process.