Rod-Impact Deagglomeration Effects: Molten Iron Fireworks Inspire Polymeric Nanovapor Deposition for High-Performance...

Thick electrodes provide a promising solution for high-energy-density electrochemical energy storage devices; however, this potential is blocked by the thickness-performance strong-coupling effect, which is fundamentally caused by the thickness-related challenges in the allocation of the active-material microenvironment components (such as binder, conductive agent, and electrolyte) during conventional wet or dry-electrode processing. Here, by learning from the famous Chinese traditional show of molten iron fireworks that utilizes rod impacts to break molten iron into small sparkles, we surprisingly discover the rod-impact deagglomeration (RIDA) effects of fibers at the microscale world for realizing solid-state nanoparticle dispersion. By harnessing the RIDA effects, a strategy of polymeric nanobinder deposition is proposed to realize the co-deposition of the nanobinder and carbon nanofiber onto the active-material particles for the scalable fabrication of centimeter-thick dry-organized electrodes (DOEs). These DOEs outperform traditional electrodes due to their robust active-material microenvironment with good mechanical stability and unblocked charge transport. Consequently, the DOEs show unexpected thickness-performance weak-decoupling behavior and ultrahigh specific capacitance (317.5 F g-1@0.5 A g-1). Our work establishes a general RIDA mechanism for solid-state nanodispersion and a promising solution for the design and dry fabrication of high-performance thick electrodes for supercapacitors and batteries.