Aromatic Polyimide/Graphene Composite Organic Cathodes for Fast and Sustainable Lithium-Ion Batteries

Hailong Lyu, Peipei Li, Jiurong Liu, Shannon Mahurin, Jihua Chen, Dale K. Hensley, Gabriel M. Veith, Zhanhu Guo, Sheng Dai, Xiao Guang Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

A composite organic cathode material based on aromatic polyimide (PI) and highly conductive graphene was prepared through a facile in situ polymerization method for application in lithium-ion batteries. The in situ polymerization generated intimate contact between PI and electronically conductive graphene, resulting in conductive composites with highly reversible redox reactions and good structure stability. The synergistic effect between PI and graphene enabled not only a high reversible capacity of 232.6 mAh g−1 at a charge–discharge rate of C/10 but also exceptionally high-rate cycling stability, that is, a high capacity of 108.9 mAh g−1 at a very high charge–discharge rate of 50C with a capacity retention of 80 % after 1000 cycles. This improved electrochemical performance resulted from the combination of stable redox reversibility of PI and high electronic conductivity of the graphene additive. The graphene-based composite also exhibited much better performance than composites based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes and the conductive carbon black C45 in terms of specific capacity and long-term cycling stability under the same charge–discharge rates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)763-772
Number of pages10
JournalChemSusChem
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 22 2018

Funding

This work was supported by the ORNL laboratory-directed research and development (LDRD) program. This work was also supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. The electron microscopy work was performed through a user project supported by the ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is sponsored by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Scientific User Facility Division. J. Liu and H. Lyu acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51572157). H. Lyu also acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) program. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.-gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

FundersFunder number
ORNL Laboratory Research and Development Program
ORNL’s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences
US Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Laboratory Directed Research and Development
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
National Natural Science Foundation of China51572157
China Scholarship Council

    Keywords

    • batteries
    • graphene
    • lithium
    • organic cathode
    • polyimide

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