Power Enhancement of Lithium-Ion Batteries by a Graphene Interfacial Layer

We achieved a method for power enhancement of heavy-duty lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) by synthesizing a graphene interfacial layer onto the anode copper current collector (ACCC). We tested fabricated coin cells, which used either 35-μm-thick rolled pristine copper foil or graphene synthesized onto the pristine copper foil for power output estimation of the LIBs. We observed the copper surface morphology with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Raman spectroscopy was used to measure the bonding characteristics and estimate the layers of graphene films. In addition, transmittance and electrical resistance were measured by ultra-violet visible near-infrared spectroscopy (UV-Vis IR) and 4 point probe surface resistance measurement. The graphene films on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate obtained a transmittance of 97.5% and sheet resistance of 429 Ω/square. Power enhancement performances was evaluated using LIB coin cells. After 5C current discharge rate of -1.7 A/g reversible capacity of 293 mAh/g and 326 mAh/g were obtained for pristine and synthesized graphene anode current collectors, respectively. The graphene synthesized onto the ACCC showed superior power performance. The results presented herein demonstrate a power enhancement of LIBs by a decrease in electron flow resistivity between active materials and the ACCC and removal of the native oxide layer on the anode copper surface using high quality graphene synthesized onto the ACCC.