Quantitative Analyses of the Interfacial Properties of Current Collectors at the Mesoscopic Level in Lithium Ion Batteries by Using Hierarchical Graphene

At the mesoscopic level of commercial lithium ion battery (LIB), it is widely believed that the poor contacts between current collector (CC) and electrode materials (EM) lead to weak adhesions and large interfacial electric resistances. However, systematic quantitative analyses of the influence of the interfacial properties of CC are still scarce. Here, we built a model interface between CC and electrode materials by directly growing hierarchical graphene films on commercial Al foil CC, and we performed systematic quantitative studies of the interfacial properties therein. Our results show that the interfacial electric resistance dominates, i.e. ∼2 orders of magnitude higher than that of electrode materials. The interfacial resistance could be eliminated by hierarchical graphene interlayer. Cathode on CC with eliminated interfacial resistance could deliver much improved power density outputs. Our work quantifies the mesoscopic factors influencing the battery performance and offers practical guidelines of boosting the performance of LIBs and beyond.