Abstract #995, 224th ECS Meeting, © 2013 The Electrochemical Society

Understanding the influence of conductive carbon By comparing the discharge capacity, especially at
additives surface area on the rate performance of higher rates, it can be concluded that the conductivity
LiFePO4 cathodes for lithium ion batteries and electrochemical performance of LiFePO4 cathode is
a b a a
Xin Qi , Berislav Blizanac , Jie Li , Martin Winter significantly affected by the surface area, particle size
a MEET Battery Research Center, Institute of Physical and morphology of the used carbon additives.
Chemistry, University of Muenster
Corrensstraße 46, 48149 Muenster, Germany Mercury porosimetry was carried out to define the
b Cabot Corporation porosity and pore size distribution of electrodes.
5401 Venice Avenue NE, Albuquerque, USA 600
Electrodes with Porosity (%)
CB1 30.47
CB2 29.87
500
CB3 29.36

Performance of the cathode active materials in lithium CB4

CB5
24.39
25.43
400

ion batteries is strongly influenced by their poor

dV/dlog(D)
300
electronic conductivity, particularly the case for lithium
200
iron phosphate (LiFePO4, LFP), which conductivity
below 10-9 S cm-1 [1, 2]. Conductive carbon additives 100

with different surface area and particle size, alone or in 0

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Pore size (nm)
different combinations, were tested as conductive
additives for LiFePO4 cathode materials in lithium ion Fig. 3: Porosity and pore size distribution of LFP electrodes with
batteries. Their influence on the conductivity, rate 5 different carbon blacks.
capability as well as the structure of the resulting
electrodes was investigated. Carbon additives with higher surface area (smaller
3
particle size) create more contact points between the
CB3 active material particles and thus have a potential to
form a better conductive network in the electrode.
Conductivity (S m )
-1

However, if the particle size is too small it becomes

CB2
CB1 CB5 more difficult to properly incorporate conductive
1
CB4
additive into the electrode structure in addition to
challenges with dispersion and agglomeration. This
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Specific surface area (m g )

2 -1
deteriorates the conductive network and increases
electrode resistivity. The electrode porosity is strongly
Fig. 1: Conductivity of LFP electrodes with the different carbon affected by the dimensions of the carbon black: small
blacks. carbon black in electrode leads to smaller pores and
160 lower porosity, thus is negatively affecting the
140 electrolyte accessibility. The results indicate that an
120
optimum electrode structure and thus performance can
Capacity (mAh g )
-1

100
be obtained by selecting a suitable combination of
80

60
carbon additive and active material.
CB1
40 CB2
CB3
20 CB4
CB5
References:
0
0.1 1 10
-1
Discharge Rate/ C-Rate (h )
[1] S. Y. Chung et al. Nature Materials 2 (2002) 123.
Fig. 2: Discharge capacity as a function of discharge rate for [2] A. K. Padhi et al. J. Electrochemical Society 144
electrodes utilizing different conductive carbon additives. (1997) 1188.