Accelerating rate calorimetry studies of the effect of binder type on the thermal stability of a lithiated mesocarbon microbead material in electrolyte

An Accelerating Rate Calorimeter (ARC) is used to measure the thermal behaviour of lithiated MCMB (mesocarbon microbead) electrodes, made with different binder, in electrolyte. Electrodes using PVDF, (VdF:HFP) or (VdF:CTFE) copolymer and ethylenepropylene-diene (EPD) terpolymer binders were studied. The safety results for the Vdf-based binder electrodes are almost identical, within error, suggesting that the safety of Li-ion cells is not compromised or improved by changes to the binder within this group. On the other hand, the electrodes made with EPD binder, that is not plasticized by the electrolyte, appear to have the lowest self-heating rates.