Thin flexible lithium-ion battery featuring graphite paper based current collectors with enhanced conductivity

Abstract

A flexible, light weight and high conductivity current collector is the key element that enables fabrication of high performance flexible lithium ion battery. Here we report a thin, light weight and flexible lithium ion battery that uses graphite papers deposited with nano-sized metallic layers as the current collector, LiFePO 4 and Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 as the cathode and anode materials, and a PE membrane soaked in LiPF 6 as the separator. Using thin and flexible graphite paper as a substrate for the current collector instead of a rigid and heavy metal foil enables us to demonstrate an ultra-thin lithium-ion battery (total thickness including encapsulation layers of less than 250 µm) that also features light weight and high flexibility.

Nanotechnology in Textiles

“…This, generally, may not be accomplished by traditional yarn-spinning methods such as melt-spinning, 107 wet-spinning, 108 or electro-spinning, 109,110 which are typically utilized to produce fibers and yarns with simple structures in textile manufacturing. Moreover, materials including biofunctional polymers, [111][112][113] low-melting-temperature metal alloys, optical plastics, [114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123] conductive polymers, [124][125][126] and electrochemical materials, [127][128][129][130] could be integrated into a composite fiber during drawing.…”

“…Flexible fiber or stripe batteries which can be directly weaved into a textile constitute a promising solution toward seamless integration with functional textiles. Flexible fiber batteries using both a simple inorganic chemistry 127,128 as well as Li-ion chemistry 129,130 have been proposed. The simplest fiber battery consisted of a microstructured low density polyethylene (LDPE) jacket with several intercommunicating channels running along the fiber.…”

The potential of paper-based diagnostics to meet the ASSURED criteria

“…150 Ions are transported between the anode and cathode through an ion-conductive electrolyte that is electronically insulating. Typical achievable voltages are around 3 V with energy capacities of 2250 mA h 159 Paper-based lithium ion batteries typically make use of commercial papers that are coated with carbon nanotubes to create highly conductive, easily manufacturable battery components 160,161 which can be foldable. 162 Paper-based lithium-ion batteries can generate power a few orders of magnitude larger than in paper-based electrochemical batteries or biofuel cells, but require multiple layers of materials and stringent packaging requirements.…”

“… 150 Ions are transported between the anode and cathode through an ion-conductive electrolyte that is electronically insulating. Typical achievable voltages are around 3 V with energy capacities of 2250 mA h 159 Paper-based lithium ion batteries typically make use of commercial papers that are coated with carbon nanotubes to create highly conductive, easily manufacturable battery components 160,161 which can be foldable. 162 …”

Electrochemical responses of flexible graphite in H2SO4

“…Graphite is commonly used as an electrode material for various electrochemical applications [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Its stability in extreme acid conditions is of interest for battery and asymmetric capacitor applications as a composite electrode and/or a current collector [7][8][9][10].…”