Direct Pre-lithiation of Electropolymerized Carbon Nanotubes for Enhanced Cycling Performance of Flexible Li-Ion Micro-Batteries

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are used as anodes for flexible Li-ion micro-batteries. However, one of the major challenges in the growth of flexible micro-batteries with CNT as the anode is their immense capacity loss and a very low initial coulombic efficiency. In this study, we report the use of a facile direct pre-lithiation to suppress high irreversible capacity of the CNT electrodes in the first cycles. Pre-lithiated polymer-coated CNT anodes displayed good rate capabilities, studied up to 30 C and delivered high capacities of 850 mAh g−1 (313 μAh cm−2) at 1 C rate over 50 charge-discharge cycles.

Keywords

• carbon nanotubes
• polymer electrolyte
• li-ion micro-batteries
• flexible anode
• pre-lithiation