Exploring the role of carbon binder domain morphology in enhancing the electrochemical performance of Li-ion battery
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Sun, Wei
Huang, Chun
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The electrochemical performance of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) is significantly influenced by electrode microstructure. The carbon and binder domain (CBD) plays an important role as it supports electronic conduction and maintains mechanical integrity. Despite its importance, the impact of CBD morphology on electrochemical performance remains poorly understood. One of the reasons is that CBD requires higher resolution to resolve the nanostructures, and techniques such as most X-ray computed tomography (XCT) machine cannot resolve CBD. This study establishes a workflow that incorporates active material (AM) particles obtained from XCT with numerically generated CBD morphology to build a 3D image-based and physics-resolved model to predict its electrochemical performance. Our model considers both explicit and implicit configurations of dense and nanoporous CBD during the electrochemical modelling process. Results indicate that the interface between AM and electrolyte significantly limits discharge capacity under explicit dense CBD configurations. In contrast, film-coating-like nanoporous CBD could enhance LIB longevity due to locally homogeneous lithiation in AM particles. Our findings also suggest that Li-ion transport is a major limitation in achieving higher (dis)charge rate capacities (5C) under implicit CBD considerations. This study highlights the crucial role of CBD morphology in optimising electrode design for improved battery performance.
Date Issued
2025-06-15
Date Acceptance
2025-03-26
Citation
Journal of Power Sources, 2025, 641
ISSN
0378-7753
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Power Sources
Volume
641
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
10.1016/j.jpowsour.2025.236904
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
236904
Date Publish Online
2025-04-03