SPECIALTY CARBON BLACKS
High Performance Materials
for Advanced Lithium Ion Batteries
Introduction
Cabot Corporation is a global performance materials company, and we strive to be
our customers’ partner of choice. We have been a leading manufacturer of carbon
black and other specialty chemicals for more than 130 years, and our global reach
enables us to partner closely with customers to meet the highest standards for
performance, quality and service. Cabot is a key player in the provision of high
performance materials and technology to many sectors of the energy industry, and
our global production network provides our customers with service capabilities as
well as the latest technical innovations. We have 43 global manufacturing locations,
including sites throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Delivering Battery Performance Through Particle Science Expertise
As demands on battery manufacturers grow with the increased use of advanced
batteries in the automotive industry and storage of electricity on the grid, battery
manufacturers are looking to performance materials companies like Cabot to enable
the next generation of lithium ion batteries.
Figure 1: Cabot’s precisely engineered
specialty carbon additives offer a broad
range of particle size, morphology and
surface properties that deliver specific
functionality.
Cabot brings unparalleled scale and technological depth when assisting its
customers with a broad range of carbon and other particulate materials, such as
metal oxides and composites. Cabot’s capabilities span the entire range of carbon
particle size, morphology and surface properties desired by battery manufacturers
and include the ability to control key properties independently, allowing our products
to provide the specific functional properties valued in the customer’s application.
Particle
OH
O
OH
Property
Function
Attribute
Conductivity
Electrical conductivity, ionic conductivity, thermal conductivity,
charge storage, contact resistance, insulating
Particle Size
Rheological
Dispersion, paste viscosity and solid loading, binder interaction,
electrolyte storage capacity, thickening efficiency
Aggregate Size
Mechanical
Electrode density, flexibility, compressibility, adhesion, hardness,
stiffness. Separator stability and porosity.
Surface
Properties
Moisture adsorption, adhesion, oxidation stability, inertness,
electrolyte stability, electrolyte storage capacity
Pore Structure
Surface Chemistry
Surface Graphitization
Lithium Ion Batteries
With the growth in applications for lithium ion technology including electric and hybrid electric vehicles and potentially for the
storage of electricity on the grid, there is an increasing demand for new batteries that deliver both high power and high energy
storage capability over their lifetime without a decline in performance and without compromising safety. We believe there is
tremendous potential to extract greater performance from lithium ion battery chemistries through innovation and optimization of
conductive carbon additives. Conductivity is one of the most important factors affecting the performance of lithium ion batteries,
and battery manufacturers use carbon additives in the electrodes to improve conductivity, particularly in the cathode.
Cabot’s LITX™ conductive carbon additives are specifically designed for the lithium ion battery industry, and are suitable for use in
automotive, electronics, power tool and grid storage applications. Compared to conventional carbon additives, our LITX products
have unique properties that can enable:
¿¿ Higher battery capacity
and rate capability
¿¿ Higher battery stability
to enable high voltage
charging for high energy
¿¿ Improved battery cycle life
¿¿ Reduced battery manufacturing cost due to
higher solids loading which enables higher
coating speeds and reduced solvent use
¿¿ Good dispersibility for both solvent- and
water-based electrode slurry processing
to further reduce cost electrode slurry
processing to further reduce cost
Cabot’s Conductive Additives for Lithium Ion Batteries
Performance in Lithium Ion Batteries
Higher
conductivity
LITX 200
High
Power
¿¿ For high power and energy
demanding applications such as
automotive and high-end electronics,
consider LITX 200 carbon additive
¿¿ For balance between power, energy
Conductivity
Amount Needed
Less
¿¿ Conductive additives improve
LITX 50
MultiPurpose
and cycle life, consider multipurpose products such as LITX 50
carbon additive
Ease of Use
Lower
More
¿¿ High surface area of conductive
additives drives higher required
dispersion energy, higher solvent/
binder uptake and other processing
requirements
Harder
Dispersion
Easier
More
Binder Amount
Less
More
Solvent Amount
Less
¿¿ Cabot offers products that provide
balance between conductivity, ease
of processing, electrode adhesion,
and mechanical properties
HIGH PERFORMANCE MATERIALS FOR ADVANCED
HIGH PERFORMANCE
LITHIUM IONMATERIALS FOR ADVANCED LITHIUM ION BATTERIES
Because of their unique properties, Cabot’s LITX™ family of products can be an
excellent choice for battery designers that are trying to achieve higher capacity and
improved rate capabilities. Both LITX 50 and LITX 200 carbon additives offer good
conductivity and are compatible with other materials used in battery electrodes. As
shown in Figure 2, LITX 200 carbon additive can enable improved power capabilities
and can also be used at lower loadings than most other carbon additives. Because
of their unique surface properties and stability, LITX products can also enable
longer cycle life (as shown in Figure 3), especially for battery designs that operate
at higher cell voltage and demand stable cycling operation at higher power. LITX
products are more compressible than most other carbon additives. This enables
denser electrodes and easier calendaring, leading to better adhesion and a reduced
amount of binder, and resulting in improved energy density.
180
Capacity at Discharge (mAh/g)
160
LITX 200 @ 1 wt. %
140
Standard Additives @ 1 wt. %
120
Standard Additives @ 3 wt. %
100
Active cathode: NCM
2032 Coin (Half) Cell, 25 ºC
Cathode Loading = 1.5 mAh/cm2
80
60
Specific Discharge Capacity (mAh g-1)
180
160
140
120
Standard Additives
1.0
C-Rate
10.0
LITX Product
100
Active cathode: LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4
Pouch bag cells with lithium metal, 25 ºC
Cathode Loading = 1 mAh/cm2
80
60
0.1
LITX Product
0
50
(h-1)
Figure 2: LITX 200 carbon additive can enable improved power
and increased energy density.
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
Cycle Number
Figure 3: LITX products can improve cycle life, especially in high
voltage systems.
In addition to having a positive impact on battery performance, LITX products
can also significantly speed up the electrode coating process, resulting in cost
savings, as shown in Figure 4. Because of the unique morphology of LITX products,
they demand less solvent in paste preparation which can result in increased solid
loading and a higher production rate because of faster coating speed. Additional
benefits are cost reduction and reduced environmental impact because less
solvent is used in the electrode coating process.
HIGH PERFORMANCE MATERIALS FOR ADVANCED LITHIUM ION BATTERIES
Lithium Ion Batteries (continued)
LITX carbon additives have unique morphology that can enable
manufacturing cost savings:
¿¿ Higher solids loading of the paste
¿¿ Faster coating speed
¿¿ Less amount of NMP required
50000
40000
30000
20000
10000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
65
Standard High Surface
Area Carbon Blacks
After adjusting
the solids loading
to equal viscosity
(5400 cPa s-1)
at fixed shear
rate (3.4 s-1)
4000
Standard Low Surface
Area Carbon Blacks
3000
2000
1000
900
800
700
Total Paste Solids Loading (wt.%)
Viscosity (cP)
70
Standard Low Surface
Area Carbon Blacks
60
55
50
LITX 200
45
NCM-111
40
35
Standard High Surface
Area Carbon Blacks
LITX 200
30
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
25
70
0
4
6
8
Loading of Carbon Additive (wt.%)
NCM (Medium Sized)
45 wt.% total solids loading
6 wt.% conductive additive
6 wt.% PVDF
Full Electrode Paste
wt.% PVDF = wt.%
conductive additive
Figure 4: LITX carbon additives enable processing benefits that can result in manufacturing cost savings.
Because of its unique surface properties, LITX products are easily dispersible in different
types of solvent and water-based slurries used for electrode coating. Water-based slurries
are particularly challenging because most carbon additives are hydrophobic and difficult
to disperse in water. As shown in Figure 5, the LITX 200 carbon additive shows some
unique advantages in water-based slurries in terms of both the ease and uniformity of
dispersion, with lower slurry viscosity which can improve battery performance and reduce
the cost of materials and processing.
Hydrophobic
2
Shear Rate (s-1)
Hydrophilic
Figure 5: LITX 200 carbon additive offers rheological (viscosity) benefits in aqueous slurries.
10
Cabot’s Commitment to Energy
The world depends upon energy to drive industry, support commerce and care
for communities. The world’s energy consumption continues to increase, despite
planned energy saving initiatives. Satisfying this demand while also striving for a
sustainable environment will require not only reliable and safe energy production
and distribution from today’s technology, but novel solutions to enhance our power
generation, storage, transmission and consumption into tomorrow’s world.
Cabot is committed to supporting that goal, and we maintain development programs
with industry bodies, institutes and universities across the world. Cabot will continue
to use its expertise in small particle science to deliver solutions that meet the energy
needs of today and the challenges of tomorrow.
NORTH AMERICA
Cabot Corporation Business
and Technical Center
157 Concord Road
Billerica, MA 01821
USA
Tel: +978 663 3455
Fax: +978 663 5471
Tel: +678-297-1300 (Customer service)
SOUTH AMERICA
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Rua do Paraiso 148 - 5 andar
04103-000 Sao Paolo,
SP Brazil
Tel: +55 11 2144 6400
Fax: +55 11 3253 0051
EUROPE
SIA Cabot Latvia
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Riga, LV-1004,
LATVIA
Tel: +371 6705 0984
Tel: +371 6705 0900
Fax: +371 6705 0985
MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA
Cabot Dubai
P.O. Box 17894
Jebel Ali Free Zone
LOB 15, Office 424
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971-4-8871800
Fax: +971-4-8871801
ASIA PACIFIC
Cabot China Ltd.
558 Shuangbai Road
Shanghai 201108
China
Tel: +86 21 5175 8800
Fax: +86 21 6434 5532
JAPAN
Cabot Specialty Chemicals Inc.
Sumitomo Shiba-Daimon Bldg. 3F
2-5-5 Shiba Daimon,
Minato-ku
Tokyo 105-0012
Japan
Tel: +81 3 6820 0255
Fax: +81 3 5425 4500
The LITX name is a trademark of Cabot Corporation.
The data and conclusions contained herein are based on work believed to be reliable, however, Cabot cannot and does not guarantee that similar results and/or conclusions will be obtained by others. This information is
provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only. No guarantee or warranty as to this information, or any product to which it relates, is given or implied. This information may contain inaccuracies, errors or
omissions and CABOT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AS TO (i) SUCH INFORMATION, (ii) ANY PRODUCT OR (iii) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
INFRINGEMENT. In no event is Cabot responsible for, and Cabot does not accept and hereby disclaims liability for, any damages whatsoever in connection with the use of or reliance on this information or any product to
which it relates.
www.cabotcorp.com
©2014 Cabot Corporation.
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