Using conductive carbon fabric to fabricate binder‐free Ni‐rich cathodes for Li‐ion batteries

Summary Carbon fabric is proposed as an alternative current collector for fabricating water‐processed LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) cathodes in order to prevent electrode corrosion problems from the use of conventional Al foil. The interlaced fiber bundles in carbon fabric feature plenty of voids and a large surface area to accommodate electrode materials without requiring an insulating binder. Further, the connected network structure of carbon fabric serves as a three‐dimensional pathway for electron transport. However, our experiments also reveal the necessity to adopt a conductive agent, although a very high content of it reduces the uniform distribution of cathode materials. When increasing the content of conductive agent from 3% to 15%, capacity retention of the corresponding NCM811 cell rises from 76% to 93% after charge/discharge at 0.5 C for 300 cycles. The causes of this increase are discussed. Carbon fabric is adopted as a conductive matrix to solve the corrosion problem of conventional Al current collector when fabricating electrodes using alkaline water‐processed NCM811 slurries. The flexible and robust interlaced fabric structure provides strong support for the electrode materials without using any insulating binder. The mass ratio of the conductive agent determines the distribution uniformity of NCM811 electrode materials in the carbon fabric.