Molecular Dynamics Study of Adhesion-Related Structural Properties for PVDF-HFP Polymer Binders

The current lithium-ion battery (LIB) market is expanding rapidly. Binders are essential to maintaining the high capacity and longevity of batteries. These binders can be classified into organic binders used for cathodes and aqueous binders used for anodes. Among them, Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) binder is a representative organic binder that offers excellent electrochemical stability. To solve low adhesive force and weak mechanical strength of conventional PVDF binders, hexafluoropropylene (HFP) is added to improve these properties. However, the present poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) binders still show lower adhesive force than other polymeric binders, and therefore further research works are necessary. In this study, we employ classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the structural properties of the PVDF-HFP copolymers. To create realistic disordered PVDF-HFP polymers, we develop a computational scheme that can randomly arrange the angles and sequences of the constituent polymer chains. By varying the ratio of randomly arranged PVDF-HFP copolymers to 0/100, 5/95, 10/90, 15/85, and 20/80, we build a solution model that mimics the HFP concentration of PVDF-HFP (0–20%, Sigma Aldrich) used in the actual experiments. N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) used as solvents. To create a large-scale model, we utilize the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) and set parameters by using OPLS force field. This allows us to build a simulation model containing approximately 40,000 atoms consisting of 10 PVDF-HFP polymers and 1500 NMP monomers. After creating the simulation model, approximately eight steps of molecular dynamics simulation are performed by referring to the process of making the actual polymer film. In this process, NMP molecules are evaporated to produce a polymer film consisting only of PVDF-HFP polymers. Then we perform the adhesion analysis by applying forces to five polymer film models with different composition ratios in various conditions. Throughout these processes, we find the characteristic changes depending on the composition ratio. Finally, we will present the possible routes that can lead to the enhanced adhesive properties of PVDF-HFP, which is a key requirement to the development of high performance binders.