Automotive World – Webinar

Improving EV battery performance

with customized lithium-ion battery
binders
David Zhu, Global Battery Business Manager Zzhu@trinseo.com
Christian Page, R&D Director cpage@trinseo.com
Julian Kalhoff, Battery Business Development Manager jkalhoff@trinseo.com

™Trademark of Trinseo S.A. or its affiliates 1

We Are Trinseo

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Global Footprint

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Latex Binders Footprint

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Company Transformation

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Battery Application Lab in Shanghai, China
Professional Li-ion battery testing capabilities
• Binder film characterization
• Battery slurry mixing and rheology testing
• Electrode coating line & calender
• Peel strength testing technology
• Cell design: Coin & Pouch cell
• Electrochemical characterization
technology

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Binders for Battery

Binder impacts
Optimizing on anode coating
particle properties and Future projects
architecture battery
performance

Binder Binder
Development for Development for
Coating Lower Internal Cell
Runnability Resistance (DCIR)

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R&D Center in Rheinmünster, Germany
• Founded 1967
• More than 300 years experience in emulsion polymerization based on 70
years of technology development in binders
• Expertise in core-shell, particle size engineering, variety of functional
monomers, grafting and crosslinking technology
• Newly established Trinseo Analytical Network

LC-MS
SEM-EDX

TGA

Sputter
Pyrolysis GC-MS

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Water Based Binders Emulsion Polymerization

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General Properties of Emulsion Polymer Binders
Emulsion Polymer:
• Colloidal suspension of spherical polymer particles in an
aqueous medium
• Small particle size: 50 – 300 nm
• Particles have sufficient ionic/steric stability no coagulation
• Polymer or solids content: 40 – 60 %
• Very large number of particles and large specific surface

One liter (solids 50 %, PS 150 nm) contains:

• ~ 300,000,000,000,000 Particles
150 nm
• Surface Area ~ 20,000 m2/l

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Backbone and Functional Monomers
• Backbone Monomers: Styrene, Butadiene, Vinyl Acetate, modified Acrylate
– Copolymerization to reach required Tg or stiffness
– Control the film formation
– Define the chemistry and inherent properties
– Molecular Weight & Crosslinking Density

• Functional monomers:
– Surface Chemistry (carboxylation, surfactant)
– Increase colloidal stability
– Increase adhesion/binding strength
– Functionalities for Batteries
– Wettability of the electrolyte
– Electrolyte absorption
– Impedance

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Core/Shell Structure
Optimizing Particle Architecture
Emulsion Polymer structuring allows differentiation by:
1. Combining antagonistic properties
2. Enhancing emulsion polymer performance
3. Increasing the functionality efficiency

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Core/Shell Structure
Transmission Electron Micrograph Showing the Cross-Sections of OsO4-Stained
Two-Stage (20 PS/80 (S/B)) Latex Particles

Polystyrene Core
(20 parts)

S/B Copolymer Shell

(80 Parts)

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Design of VOLTABOND™ 029
• Functional monomer A and B are polymerized onto latex particle surface,
which can increase the stability of latex itself and compatibility with different
CMC.
• Functional monomer C is polymerized to the molecular chain inside the
polymer, which can increase the electrolyte wetting properties, therefore
decreasing internal resistance (DCIR) and improve the low temperature
performance.

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Binders for Battery

Binder impacts
Optimizing on anode coating
particle properties and Future projects
architecture battery
performance

Binder Binder
Development for Development for
Coating Lower Internal Cell
Runnability Resistance (DCIR)

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Viscosity Stability of Coating Slurry

Ratio* Particle size ρ SSA • VOLTABONDTM 029 shows

wt% µm g/cm3 m2/g
Graphite 96.5 9[1] 2.2 9[1] stable viscosity upon mixing
Carbon Black 1.0 0.02[2] 1.9 >60[2]
Binder 1.5 0.15 1.0 40
*1 wt% CMC (Mw 750.000, DS 0.8) is added to the formulation

[1] Buqa et al., ECS, 152 (2) A474-A481 (2005)

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[2] Pfeifer et al., J. Mater. Chem. A, 2020, 8, 6092
Binder Development for High-Speed Coating
Latex binder without enough
Issues of high-speed coating drying
1. Reduced drying duration the binding
power of binder cannot be fully developed Clear film, low strength

2. More intensive drying binder migration

becomes more significant 500 nm

Chain diffusion
through particle
Proposals Latex binder with enough
drying
interface

1. Fast-curing binder which can have good

Clear film, high strength
binding strength at less drying time
2. Control binder migration by increase the
interactions between binder and 500 nm
CMC/graphite

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Binder strength Development at Different Curing
Conditions
• Curing conditions (5 min @ 100 °C) strongly affects the binder film strength

*pure binder film w/o added battery components 18

Binders for Battery

Binder impacts
Optimizing on anode coating
particle properties and Future projects
architecture battery
performance

Binder Binder
Development for Development for
Coating Lower Internal Cell
Runnability Resistance (DCIR)

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Anode Coating Structure and Polymer Binding
Theory
• Single polymer particle does not accomplish a binding
– polymer film is basic binding unit
• Polymer film to bind graphite, carbon black and copper foil in a 'Point-to-Point’
manner

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Electrochemical Impedance at Low Temperature
• The substantial increase of Rct at low
temperature will significantly
deteriorate the low temperature
performance of battery.
• Any means which can increase the
charge transfer can help to boost
battery performance at low
temperature

S.S. Zhang et al. / Electrochimica Acta 49 (2004) 1057–1061

Temperature dependence of Rb, Rsei, Rct and Rct percentage
• Rb: bulk resistance
• Rsei: solid-state interface resistance
• Rct: charge transfer resistance

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Lithium-ion Transfer at the Electrolyte/Binder Film
Interface
Slow Li-ion transfer

Fast Li-ion transfer

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Electrolyte Wettability of Binder Film

Competitive Binder

VOLTABOND™ 029

Electrolyte:
EC/DEC/EMC= 3/2/5, 1M LiPF6

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Electrolyte Absorption
• Higher electrolyte absorption for VOLTABOND™ 029 compared to competitor
grade
Test Method:
1. Binder film formation; weight = m1
2. Store binder film in excess of electrolyte for 24h
@60 °C
3. Remove soaked binder film; weight = m2
Binder film
4. Electrolyte absorption = (m2-m1)/m1*100 %
Electrolyte:
EC/DEC/EMC= 3/2/5, 1M LiPF6

After absorption

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Electrochemical Characterization
Full Cell Tests

Composition Loading Density

Cathode NCM 523-CB-PVDF 92-4-4 17.7 mg/cm2 3.4 g/cm3

Anode NG-CB-CMC-SBR 96.5-1-1-1.5 9 mg/cm2 1.5 g/cm3

Electrolyte EC/EMC= 3/7 w/w, 1M LiPF6

Size 500 mAh Pouch Cell

Tested by:

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Electrochemical Characterization
Internal resistance (DCIR)
• VOLTABOND™ 029 reveals lower internal resistance at low T compared to
benchmark

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Electrochemical Characterization
Low Temperature Performance @ -20 °C

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Electrochemical Characterization
Lithium Plating – 3 cycles 0.1C @ 0 °C

Competitor VOLTABOND™ 029

Sample Competitor VOLTABONDTM 029

Lithium plating* Heavy Slight
*detection by visual evaluation

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Electrochemical characterization
Cell performance after 7-day storage @ 60 °C
• No obvious performance difference observed at high temperatures

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Electrochemical Characterization
Cycling performance @ 45 °C
• Slightly enhanced cycling performance by using VOLTABONDTM 029
compared to the utilization of competitor binder.

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Properties of VOLTABONDTM 029

VOLTABONDTM 029

Solids, % 50

pH 7.0

Particle Size, nm 180

Tg, °C 5
• Good slurry stability
• High binding strength
Performance • Low DCIR
• High C-rate Performance

Applications High energy density EV battery

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Summary
• Full ability to structure polymeric binders for lithium-ion battery applications
• Improved binder compatibility other slurry components, e.g., CMC can help to
obtain an enhanced coating viscosity stability.
• Optimized electrode drying conditions can potentially increase peel strength of
high-speed coated electrodes
• VOLTABOND™ 029 showed improved performance in kinetics without
sacrificing high temperature and cycling behaviors.

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 Future Projects
Binder for Fast-Charging Battery
Applications Conductive Binder Fluorine Free Cathode Binder

Hypothesis: Binder can be designed to Hypothesis: Conductive Hypothesis: Florine free binder is more
boost Li+-ion transfer binder will improve the sustainable and cost effective than PVdF.
conductive network in the
electrode to improve kinetics

Jow et al., Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 165 (2) A361-A367 (2018)

Binders for High Si-Containing

Binder for Separators
Anodes
Hypothesis: Battery performance can be Other Projects? Hypothesis: Binding network will maintain
improved by improving adhesion between the coating structure during charge and
separator and electrodes. Looking for A discharge
Partnership?
zzhu@trinseo.com
cpage@trinseo.com
jkalhoff@trinseo.com Sun Y, Liu N, Cui Y. Promises and challenges of nanomaterials for lithium-based
rechargeable batteries. Nat Energy. 2016; 1:16071.

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