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Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the favorite energy storage devices that are applied to mobile and stationary energy storage applications. The widespread use of Li-ion batteries requires an increase in the energy density of each battery cell. Anode-free Li-ion Batteries (AFLIBs) are new types of LIBs models that offer high energy density. However, there are still many challenges in fabricating AFLIBs toward commercial use, mainly improving the battery cycle and the efficiency of intercalation/deintercalation of Li-ion between two electrodes. In this research, the fabrication of AFLIBs is studied, optimized, and integrated with cathode materials to be commercial cylindrical full-cell LIBs. The comparison of an active cathode material between LiFePO4 (LFP) and NMC622 showed that NMC622 performed better than LFP. The optimum condition of cathode materials coating thickness is 200 microns achieving 2.75 mAh cm-2 of area capacity. Furthermore, the gold platting strategy is proposed to modify the Cu foil surface to improve the electrical performance and stability of AFLBs. As a result, the control gold plating with 5 nm thickness increases the full-cell capacity of AFLBs to 142.89 mAh g-1 with a capacity retention percentage of 95.41% after five cycles.

Lithium-ion batteries have received much attention for their potential use in electric vehicles (EV's) and portable electronic devices. Fabrication of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries via ecologically sound (green) processes is also of great interest. Typically, in the production of cathode electrodes, organic solvents such as N-methyl-pyrrolidone (NMP) are used, but these chemicals are toxic. Water-based processing of LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 (NMC) for manufacturing cathode electrodes can provide a more environmental friendly option. In this work, water soluble styrene butadiene copolymer (SBR) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) are used as binders. The active material ratio was set at 90%. The electrochemical performance of water-based NMC electrodes is examined. Additionally, various conductive agents were considered including acetylene black (A) and graphite (B). The particle sizes of conductive agent affect the electrochemical performance of the batteries. Our results show that replacing the conventional organic solvent-based manufacturing route for NMC cathodes with a water-based process is a promising way to fabricate Li-ion batteries with comparable electrochemical behavior, while avoiding toxic process materials and simultaneously reducing the overall manufacturing costs.

Significant demand of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) is raising awareness of future LIBs wastes which are highly required to be reprocessed, reused or recycled. In this research, copper foil waste from spent LIBs are upcycled as an anode material, CuO. Hydrometallurgical route was applied to selectively dissolve copper foils where nitric acid, maleic acid and acetic acid were used as the leaching agents while oxalic acid were used to precipitate copper into copper oxalate which is a precursor to CuO. CuO was obtained by calcination of copper oxalate at high temperature. Based on XRD and FTIR analysis, Copper (II) oxalate dihydrates is successfully obtained while SEM images of the samples confirmed micron sized agglomerates which is consist of submicron primary particles. XRD analysis of CuO samples obtained from various leaching process confirmed that a pure CuO is successfully synthesized from nitric acid leaching process while CuO from acetic acid and maleic acid leaching has Cu2O and Cu phase. CuO and 10%CuO@graphite sample from nitric acid leaching were used as sole anode and composite anode in a LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2(NCM) battery, respectively. The initial columbic efficiency of CuO anode was far inferior to CuO@graphite. However, CuO@graphite had higher specific charge-discharge capacity with the value of 347.8 mAh/g compared to pure graphite (286.5 mAh/g). In conclusion, Cu-foils are a promising source of CuO to enhance the capacity of commercial graphite anode.