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Rheological properties of electrode slurries have been intensively studied for manifold different combinations of active materials and binders. Standardly, solvent-based systems are under use, but a trend towards water-based electrode manufacturing is becoming more and more important. The different solvent is beneficial in terms of sustainability and process safety but is also accompanied by some disadvantages such as extraction of residual humidity and a higher complexity concerning slurry stability. Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) active material provides good long-term stability and can be processed in aqueous solutions. Combining the LTO active material with sodium alginate (SA) as a promising biobased polymer binder reveals good electrochemical properties but suffers from bad slurry stability. In this work, we present a comprehensive rheological study on material interactions in anode slurries consisting of LTO and SA, based on a complex interaction of differentially sized materials. The use of two different surfactants—namely, an anionic and non-ionic one, to enhance slurry stability, compared with surfactant-free slurry.

A copper current collector is treated by electrolytic deposition of copper dendrites at the surface of the foil. This treatment results in a more structured surface leading to an improved contact between the electrode materials and the current collector. The contact to the electrode material particles of different sizes is investigated. Active materials of submicron size exhibit a drastically reduced internal resistance and a clearly improved C-rate capability. BET surface area measurement and calculation of roughness factor resulted in the finding of dendritic copper foil to provide an 8-fold larger surface area compared to the untreated foil. A comprehensive electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study is conducted for elucidation of electrochemical utilisation of the surface area increase. As a result, both fitting parameters for capacitance and surface resistance correspond to a similar normalization shift, indicating a clear improvement in the electro-active interface area.

Water-soluble CMC/PVDF binder systems were used to prepare graphite anodes and compared mechanically and electrochemically with CMC/SBR binder systems. The effect of crystallinity of PVDF binder on the mechanical and electrochemical performance of the anodes is studied. A contact free method easy to operate and equipped with high accuracy was developed by using capacitance measurement. The swelling of graphite electrodes was controlled and showed different results for different binder crystallinities (no swelling of binder with high crystallinity vs 12% for medium crystallinity and 17% for low crystallinity binder). The discharge capacity depends on the crystallinity of the binders and half-cells delivered a capacity in the range of 230–360 mAh g−1. The binder with medium crystallinity in particular exhibited the best mechanical and electrochemical performance and showed an excellent C-rate stability with specific capacities up to 10 C. Full cell tests showed good cycling stability over 180 cycles. The water-based PVDF binders seem to be a promising alternative to solvent-based binders.