• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

The cathode, which is one of the four major components of a lithium secondary battery, is an important component responsible for the energy density of the battery. The mixing process of active material, conductive material, and polymer binder is very essential in the commonly used wet manufacturing process of the cathode. However, in the case of mixing conditions of the cathode, since there is no systematic method, in most cases, differences in performance occur depending on the manufacturer. Therefore, LiMn₂O₄ (LMO) cathodes were prepared using a commonly used THINKY mixer and homogenizer to optimize the mixing method in the cathode slurry preparation step, and their characteristics were compared. Each mixing condition was performed at 2000 RPM and 7 min, and to determine only the difference in the mixing method during the manufacture of the cathode other experiment conditions (mixing time, material input order, etc.) were kept constant. Among the manufactured THINKY mixer LMO (TLMO) and homogenizer LMO (HLMO), HLMO has more uniform particle dispersion than TLMO, and thus shows higher adhesive strength. Also, the result of the electrochemical evaluation reveals that HLMO cathode showed improved performance with a more stable life cycle compared to TLMO. The initial discharge capacity retention rate of HLMO at 69 cycles was 88%, which is about 4.4 times higher than that of TLMO, and in the case of rate capability, HLMO exhibited a better capacity retention even at high C-rates of 10, 15, and 20 C and the capacity recovery at 1 C was higher than that of TLMO. It's postulated that the use of a homogenizer improves the characteristics of the slurry containing the active material, the conductive material, and the polymer binder creating an electrically conductive network formed by uniformly dispersing the conductive material suppressing its strong electrostatic properties thus avoiding aggregation. As a result, surface contact between the active material and the conductive material increases, electrons move more smoothly, changes in lattice volume during charging and discharging are more reversible and contact resistance between the active material and the conductive material is suppressed.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.65-75
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• 2021

Coin cell is a basic testing platform for battery research, discovering new materials and concepts, and contributing to fundamental research on next-generation batteries. Li metal batteries (LMBs) are promising since a high energy density (~500 Wh kg^-1) is deliverable far beyond Li-ion. However, Li dendrite-triggered volume fluctuation and high surface cause severe deterioration of performance. Given that such drawbacks are strongly dependent on the cell parameters and structure, such as the amount of electrolyte, Li thickness, and internal pressure, reliable Li metal coin cell testing is challenging. For the LMB-specialized coin cell testing platform, this study suggests the optimal coin cell structure that secures performance and reproducibility of LMBs under stringent conditions, such as lean electrolyte, high mass loading of NMC cathode, and thinner Li use. By controlling the cathode/anode (C/A) area ratio closer to 1.0, the inactive space was minimized, mitigating the cell degradation. The quantification and imaging of inner cell pressure elucidated that the uniformity of the pressure is a crucial matter to improving performance reliability. The LMB coin cells exhibit better cycling retention and reproducibility under higher (0.6 MPa → 2.13 MPa) and uniform (standard deviation: 0.43 → 0.16) stack pressure through the changes in internal parts and introducing a flexible polymer (PDMS) film.