CMC and Sodium Alginate as novel water-soluble binders for NMC cathodes

In recent years the issue of carbon emissions in the atmosphere has become more and more urgent, focalizing the attention of the automotive industry on the research and development of e-mobility technologies. Novel water-based binders for battery materials represent, in this context, an important opportunity for the e-mobility market, due to simplification in electrode preparation (simple water can be used as a solvent instead of N-Methyl-2-Pyrrolidone) and in active material re-use at the end of the battery life cycle1. This study aimed to evaluate the electrochemical performances and surface morphologies of NMC 811 cathodes with Sodium Alginate and Carboxymethyl Cellulose in different combinations substituting the commercially used PVdF as the electrode binder. The obtained electrodes underwent 50 charge and discharge cycles at 0.5 C and 21 cycles at 0.1 C charge and increasing C-rate discharge to determine cycling and C-rate performances. Additionally, SEM images and Raman spectra of the electrodes before and after the cycles were acquired. Our findings showed good performances obtained from the 4% alginate + 1% CMC composition of polymers, which will be further examined in future studies (in which the active material will undergo different pre-treatments such as ball milling and doping.)