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Journal of New Materials for Electrochemical Systems 9, 353-358 (2006) © J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems New Type of Carbon/Carbon Composite as Anode Material for High Power Li-ion Cells ∗ 1 J.M. Skowroński1,2 , S. Błażewicz3 , M. Walkowiak2 Poznań University of Technology, Institiute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry, ul Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznań, Poland 2 Central Laboratory of Batteries and Cells, ul. Forteczna 12, 61-362 Poznań, Poland 3 Academy of Mining and Metallurgy, Department of Special Ceramics, al A. Mickiewicz 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland Received: February 14, 2006, Accepted: May 27, 2006 Abstract: Phenol formaldehyde resin filled with two-directionally arrayed graphite fibers was thermally treated at 2200◦ C in argon to give carbon-carbon composite plates. Anodes for lithium-ion cells were prepared by both simple cutting out disks electrodes and milling C/C composite plates followed by mixing the resulting carbon particles with polymer binder. All the powder type anodes consisted of carbon particles smaller than 32 μm in diameter. A very high cyclic reversibility was reached (94%) for the first cycle of disk anodes, but discharge capacity appeared to be unsatisfactory. The number increased 2.5 times for anodes composed of milled composites, whereas their cyclic reversibility persisted unchanged. These anodes exhibited particularly advantageous behavior when discharged at high rates. Their discharge capacities appeared to be 40% and 19% higher as compared to anodes composed of milled graphite fibers as well as graphite flakes, respectively. It was shown that the milling operation carried out excessively long exerted a negative influence on the electrochemical parameters of anodes. The electrochemical results are discussed with respect to XRD and SEM data. Keywords: inorganic compounds, nanostructures, electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electrochemical properties. graphite materials have also a number of disadvantages, among which the most important are slow lithium ion diffusion rate and incompatibility with some electrolytes. One of the ways to improve the electrochemical performance of graphitic materials is their coating with a layer of unorganized carbon, and thus creating a carbon/carbon-type composite. There are roughly two kinds of methods of achieving this goal. The first one (carbonization methods) is based on mixing graphite material with carbon precursor followed by carbonization at a high temperature. In the second group of methods (vapor deposition methods), carbon is deposited onto the graphite particles from vapor phase. The first report on C/C composites as potential anodes for Li-ion cells comes from the year 1995. In their work Kuribayashi et al. [1] studied materials obtained by heat treatment of the mixture of various graphitic materials and pitch blended phenol resins. The authors classified their composites as core-shell structured materials. More recently, Liu et al. [2] examined another material of this type, in which the graphite core was encapsulated in non-graphitizable coke shell. They found this electrode material to have excellent characteristics, such as 1. INTRODUCTION Along with the development of the so-called lithium-ion (rocking chair, shuttle-cock, swing) energy storage technology at the end of the twentieth century, carbon materials have found new rich area of application. This is due to the fact that in spite of intensive investigations, carbons (especially graphites) are still considered as the best option for anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Among carbon materials studied as potential anodes are natural and synthetic graphites (including their derivatives such as expanded graphites), graphite fibers, non-graphitized carbons (both soft and hard), doped carbons, carbon composites and nanotubes. In spite of the existence of so many forms of carbon, various kinds of graphite are most commonly chosen as practical anodes in commercial batteries. This is caused by certain favorable features of graphites such as high reversible capacity, relatively low irreversible capacity, flat voltage profile with the average lithium intercalation voltage close to zero volts (vs. Li/Li+ ). However, ∗ To whom corresponding to: E-mail: [email protected], Fax: +48 61 665 2571 353 354 J.M. Skowroński et al. / J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems high capacity, enhanced kinetics of lithium transport and compatibility with the electrolyte. Very promising results, especially in terms of reduced irreversible capacity, were obtained also by Yoshio et al. [3], who synthesized their graphite-carbon composite using so-called thermal vapor deposition technique. There exist reports on carbon fibers (not graphitized) as the core component in C/C composites regarded from the point of view of lithium intercalation [4-7]. Takamura et al. [6] proved that a poor cycleability of a mesophase carbon fibers (prepared at 950◦ C) of a low crystalline perfection can be considerably improved after coating with epoxy resin carbon. Recently, Skowroński et al. [7] showed that the cyclic discharge/charge efficiency as high as 93% can be attained in the first cycle for PANbased fibers after coating with pyrolytic carbon at 960◦ C followed by heat treatment at 2200◦ C. Up to now there have been no reports on lithium intercalation into C/C composites having graphitized fibers as the core. In the present paper, a new type of C/C composite is reported as potential anode material for Li-ion cells. The presented material is produced in an innovatory way by carbonization method, using graphite fibers as the core component embedded in the non-graphitizable carbon matrix. It is shown in this work that graphite fibers undergo peculiar transformation when heated together with the carbon precursor. It is suggested that this phenomenon can be regarded as a general rule which applies to all C/C composites obtained by carbonization methods (but not for those obtained by vapor deposition methods) and can convincingly account for their enhanced rate performance. 2. EXPERIMENTAL Carbon/carbon composites were obtained from high modulus graphite fibers (Thornel K-1100) and phenolformaldehyde resin used as carbon precursor. The first step in the production of polymer-based composites was the formation of a single layer prepreg with unidirectional arrangement of fibers infiltrated with the solution of phenol-formaldehyde resin in ethanol. The prepregs were air dried at 50 o C under vacuum, to remove the solvent. Next, appropriately cut layers of the unidirectional fiber prepreg were put into the form, pressed and cured at about 160 o C. Compression molding was accomplished by placing the preform into a matched die preheated up to 90 o C. By stacking prepregs in two directions, 2D composites were obtained. These samples were carbonized at 1000 o C followed by heat treatment up to 2200 o C in an argon atmosphere. In the resulting C-C composite the content of phenol resin-based hard carbon was 30 %. This composite (denoted K-1100/ZF) was milled gently (sample K1100/ZF-R32) in an agate mortar and intensively (sample K-1100/ZF-M32) during 6 h in a mortar grinder ‘pulverisette 2’ (Fritch). For comparison, the graphite fibers were examined both in the original state (sample K-1100) and intensively milled (sample K-1100/M32). All milled materials were sieved so that they consisted of particles Figure 1. First cycle of constant current charge/discharge test at 10 mA/g for the sample K-1100/ZF. below 32 μm only. The results obtained on the above materials were compared with those for graphite flakes (Graphitwerk Kropfmühl AG, 99.98 wt.% C) smaller in diameter than 32 μm (sample GK32). The XRD measurements were carried out using Xray diffractometer (Phillips PW-1710, 35kV, 20mA) with FeKα radiation (λ = 0.1937 nm). SEM images of examined materials were obtained using the scanning electron microscopy (Tescan - Vega 5135). The lithium insertion/deinsertion behaviour of samples were examined in a two electrode coin cell (CR 2430-type ) with a lithium foil playing simultaneously the role of both the counter and reference electrode. The electrolyte was 1M LiClO4 - EC/DEC (1:1 by weight). The working electrodes (except for K-1100/ZF in case of which electrodes were prepared by simple cutting round pellets out of the original plate) were prepared by mixing the sample (90 wt.%) with PVDF (10 wt.%) dissolved in cyclopentanone. After spreading the slurry on the nickel grid current collector the electrodes were dried under vacuum at 140◦ C for 4 hours. The cells were assembled in glove box filled with dry argon and then galvanostatically cycled between 0 V and 2 V vs. Li/Li+ . For each cell five charge/discharge cycles were done at the rate of 10 mA/g of active substance, followed by additional three cycles at the rate of 30 mA/g, followed by additional three cycles at the rate of 100 mA/g. 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The composite carbon material examined in the present work is produced in a form of hard, brittle plates having ca. 1 mm in thickness. Although the fibers are sunk in the hard carbon matrix, the fibrous morphology of the material can still easily be seen. To obtain the electrochemical data on the composite as-received, the electrodes were prepared by simple cutting the round pellets out of the plates, and then testing them in a coin cells with metallic lithium as counter-electrodes. The galvanostatic curve for the first New Type of Carbon/Carbon Composite as Anode Material for High Power Li-ion Cells / J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems 355 Table 1. Electrochemical parameters of examined materials. Sample Q1ch 10 Q1dis 10 Irr. Eff. Qdis 30 K-1100/ZF K-1100/ZF-R32 K-1100/ZF-M32 K-1100 K-1100-M32 GK32 [mAh×g−1 ] 99 240 248 301 335 369 [mAh×g−1 ] 93 220 204 272 293 342 [mAh×g−1 ] 6 20 44 29 42 27 [%] 94 92 82 90 87 93 [mAh×g−1 ] 30 205 174 229 214 291 Q1ch 10 : Q1d is 10 : Irr.: Eff.: Qd is 30 : Qd is 100 : Capacity dropQdis 30 vs.Q1dis 10 [%] 68 7 15 16 27 15 Qdis 30 [mAh×g−1 ] − 142 89 100 47 102 Capacity dropQdis 100 vs.Q1dis 10 [%] − 35 56 63 84 69 Charge capacity in the first cycle of constant current test at 10 mA/g Discharge capacity in the first cycle of constant current test at 10 mA/g Irreversible capacity in the first cycle defined as Q1ch 10 - Q1d is 10 Efficiency in the first cycle defined as (Q1d is 10 / Q1ch 10 )*100 Discharge capacity in the third cycle of constant current test at 30 mA/g Discharge capacity in the third cycle of constant current test at 100 mA/g Figure 2. SEM image for the sample K-1100/ZF-R32. Figure 3. SEM image for the sample K-1100/ZF-M32. cycle can be seen in Fig. 1, and the relevant numerical data is given in Table 1 (sample K-1100/ZF). Small values of the first charge and discharge capacities (99 mAh/g and 93 mAh/g, respectively, at 10 mA/g) allow the conclusion that not the whole of sample is accessible for lithium intercalation, even at such a small charge/discharge rate. The shape of the curves, which is characteristic of disordered carbons rather than of graphitic ones (the lack of any signs of the stage structure, a relatively large hysteresis between the charge and discharge curves) indicates, that the carbon shell of the composite is preferably accessible for lithium insertion, whereas the graphite fiber core remains non-intercalated. This is not surprising taking into account that the electrode is rather thick and thus the transport conditions for lithium ions are aggravated. Moreover, the exceptionally small value of the irreversible capacity loss (6 mAh/g; see Table 1) means that the surface area accessible for electrolyte penetration is very low which goes well with the above mentioned observations. In order to improve the electrochemical performance of the examined material in terms of enhanced lithium intercalation conditions, it was decided to transform it to a powder form. The pulverization of sample was carried out in two ways: (a) manually in a mortar (mild/non-destructive pulverization; sample K-1100/ZF-R32) and (b) automatically in a mortar grinder (intensive/destructive pulverization; sample K-1100/ZF-M32). To understand the changes in structure and morphology of the samples subjected to mild and intensive powdering, the scanning electron microscopy images were taken and XRD measurements were done. SEM images made for samples K-1100/ZF-R32 (Fig. 2) and K-1100/ZF-M32 (Fig. 3) reveal that the composite powdered in a mortar grinder is much more efficiently pulverized as compared to the sample powdered manually. In the latter case relatively large blocks of carbon are still visible as well as fragments of fibers having maintained to a large extent their original fibrous morphology. In contrast with this, SEM image for sample K-1100/ZF-M32 356 J.M. Skowroński et al. / J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems Table 2. Crystallographic parameters of examined materials. Sample d [nm] LC [nm] K-1100/ZF-M32 0.3380 43 K-1100/ZF-R32 0.3385 58 K-1100-M32 0.3373 68 K-1100. 0.3365 62 d: Interlayer distance LC : Crystallite dimension along crystallographic c-axis Figure 5. XRD pattern for the sample K-1100/ZF-R32. Figure 4. Enlarged SEM image of a single graphite fibre in the sample K-1100/ZF-M32. reveals that this product is much more fragmented, with poor features of the original morphology. Fig. 4 presents SEM image made under higher magnification for one fiber selected from the composite. XRD patterns for both samples indicate that together with changes in morphology a significant change in the crystal structure takes place (Table 2 and Figs. 5 and 6). As can be seen for these figures, the peaks arising for the graphite phase are predominant on the diffraction patterns. Moreover, it is noteworthy that the d002 interlayer spacings calculated based on the (002) graphite peak for both the milled composites and fibers are close to each other and similar to that for the original fibers (Table 2). The broadening of the diffraction peaks allows the assessment of the structural disorder which was created in the composites due to their milling. The crystallite dimension along c-axis (Lc ) was calculated on the basis of the Scherer equation: LC (002) = 0.89λ B002 cos(θ002 ) where λ is the wave length of FeKα radiation, B002 is the width at half-maximum of the (002) diffraction peak and θ002 is the corresponding diffraction angle. In all case the (002) peaks were asymmetric in shape, and it was possible to extract two sub-peaks from the experimental profiles Figure 6. XRD pattern for the sample K-1100/ZF-M32. by fitting. However, for the simplicity, the total width was taken for the determination of the crystallite size. Such values of Lc , although do not possess clear physical meaning, reflect the existence of the unorganized phase in the samples. The crystallite size for the sample K-1100/ZF-M32 (43 nm) is smaller in comparison to sample K-1100/ZFR32 (58 nm) which means that the crystal structure of the former sample was destroyed during milling (see Table 2). Intensive milling changes significantly the lithium intercalation behaviour (see Figs. 7 and 8 and Table 1). At the current density of 10 mA/g the reversible capacity for sample K-1100/ZF-M32 (204 mAh/g) is lowered in relation to sample K-1100/ZF-R32 (220 mAh/g). A probable reason for this is that prolonged powdering in a mill introduces some disorder to the sample structure. It is well known that the presence of turbostratic structure in graphite makes the lithium uptake in the prepared electrodes lower. Simultaneously, the irreversible capacity rises as the effect of greater pulverisation of the sample be- New Type of Carbon/Carbon Composite as Anode Material for High Power Li-ion Cells / J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems 357 Figure 7. First cycle of constant current charge/discharge test at 10 mA/g for the sample K-1100/ZF-R32. Figure 8. First cycle of constant current charge/discharge test at 10 mA/g for the sample K-1100/ZF-M32. cause of increased surface area (44 mAh/g and 20 mAh/g, respectively). On comparing the galvanostatic curves one can notice that the shape of curve for sample K-1100/ZFR32 is distinctly more “graphitic” in character. On the curves there exist voltage plateaux characteristic of the stage transformation. The hysteresis between charge and discharge curves of the cycle is very small. In the case of sample K-1100/ZF-M32 this hysteresis is markedly larger. These observations support the conclusion that too excessive milling destroys the materials in terms of crystal structure and electrochemical performance. On the other hand, mild powdering enhances greatly the material performance as compared to the original composite plates (compare data for samples K-1100/ZF and K-1100/ZF-R32 in Table 1), which can be ascribed to the improvement of transport conditions for lithium ions. Very interesting observations arise from comparing the behavior of the studied materials under higher current rates. It is not surprising that at 30 mA/g and 100 mA/g all the materials exhibit dramatically smaller capacities (Table 1). The most pronounced capacity drop is observed for the original composite (sample K-1100/ZF). On comparing the figures for mildly and intensively powdered composite it is particularly striking that the first one shows much better properties at higher rates in relation to the second one (35% and 56% capacity drop between 10 mA/g and 100 mA/g, respectively). For better understanding of this phenomenon, additional electrochemical experiments were done. The graphite fibers used for preparing the composite materials were electrochemically tested both in the unchanged form (only cut down to ca. 1 mm long pieces; sample K-1100) and intensively powdered in a grinder using identical conditions as for the sample K-1100/ZF-M32 (the product is denoted K-1100-M32). Finally, typical flaky graphite (d < 32 μm) was tested (sample GK32). It appears from data presented in Table 1 that both graphite fibers and graphite flakes are characterized by similar and relatively large capacity drop between 10 mA/g and 100 mA/g (63 % and 69 % respectively). Intensively milled graphite fibers exhibit even larger capacity drop (84 %). A very poor rate capability of graphite fibers (both for the original and intensively milled) in comparison to the composites, especially those mildly powdered, suggests that one should search for a factor responsible for a surprisingly good rate performance of these composites. At this stage of investigations it might be assumed that the shell carbon produced by carbonization of phenol resin has so good high rate capability that even together with such a poor component as fibers elevates the performance of the resultant composite. However, this hypothesis might be controversial, because there is no direct evidence for such excellent characteristics of phenol resin carbon itself. Besides, the mentioned characteristics would have to be extraordinarily good to balance and overcompensate the influence of the fibers. This view, however, does not exclude the case that the carbon shell adds certain positive value to the overall rate performance of the composite since hard carbons are known to have better abilities to work under higher loads than graphites. Another possible explanation is that, apart from a positive contribution of the carbon shell, also graphite fiber core undergoes certain positive changes during heat treatment of the composite. These changes should account for the enhanced transport conditions in these fibers. Indeed, after carbonization the fiber surface loses its smoothness and carbon fibers become brittle in contrast to flexible fibers used for the preparation of the composites, which is an observation of a decisive importance. This is due to phenomena occurring at the fiber/matrix boundary due to thermal shrinkage of sample resulting in mechanically created imperfections. Such a view is consistent with reports evidencing that the stress-induced graphitization occurs anomalously in the fiber/matrix interface at high temperature [8,9]. As can be seen in Figure 4, fissures and cracks 358 J.M. Skowroński et al. / J. New Mat. Electrochem. Systems are present on the fiber surface. Such structural imperfections may provide paths of fast ionic transport inside the fiber. The destruction of the core fiber component upon creation of the composite can be regarded as a very particular kind of mechanical modification of these fibers. This beneficial effect is reduced by intensive milling. This effect is clearly noticed from comparison of the behavior of pure untreated fibers (sample K-1100) and intensively milled composite (sample K-1100-M32). The enhancement of the rate capabilities has already been reported by some authors for C/C composites obtained by carbonization technique. For example, Liu et al. [2] studied lithium insertion/deinsertion behavior of a material composed of flaky natural graphite as the core and epoxy resin-derived carbon as the shell. They subjected their material to constant current charging/discharging regimes with current densities rising from 0.50 mA/cm2 up to a maximum of 1.80 mA/cm2 (which means a 3.6-fold increase) and found that the composite loses markedly less of its reversible capacity upon shift to larger loads (60% capacity drop accompanies a 3.6-fold current density increase) as compared to the natural graphite (80% capacity drop in the same conditions). In the present work only 35% capacity drop is observed upon a 10-fold current density increase. If one assumes that the essential reason for the enhancement of rate capability observed for carbonizationtype C/C composites is mechanical stress inherent to the carbonization procedure, which is claimed in this work, then better result presented here for fibers-based composite in comparison with flakes-based composite presented by Liu et al. can be explained by the contribution of radial texture of fiber. Such an orientation of graphite fibers might promote the formation of cracks along the fiber axis. This effect is less pronounced for graphite flakes having plane texture. From the above considerations one can derive two general remarks. The first one is that the advantage of vapor deposition-type C/C composites comes from the fact that they exhibit decreased irreversible capacities, whereas the advantage of carbonization-type C/C composites arises mainly from their enhanced rate capabilities. The second remark is that the characteristic of the vapor depositiontype C/C composites is connected directly with the existence of unorganized carbon layer that screens the edge planes of the graphite core, whereas the uniqueness of the carbonization-type C/C composites results from their thermal history rather than from the actual phase configuration. It seems that this distinction between the two categories of C/C composites has not been yet exhaustively recognized. 4. CONCLUSION Synthesis of carbon/carbon composite creates new material, the properties of which are not simply a sum of the properties of the individual components. In the present work a new anode material was presented, produced on the basis of the innovatory carbon/carbon composite hav- ing graphite fiber as the core and phenol resin-base hard carbon as the shell. At high current loads this material exhibits exceptionally good capacities, which makes it a promising anode for high power Li-ion batteries. The results obtained showed that the loss of discharge capacity for the C/C composite-based anode due to ten times increased current density is even twice lower as compared to that of flaky graphite-type anode. The excellent rate characteristics of the C/C composite anodes were derived from the existence of fast ionic diffusion paths in the fibers, which is likely the consequence of mechanical stress exerted on the fibers during carbonization. 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Financial support for this work from the State Committee for Scientific Research of Poland (KBN Grant No. 3 T09B 068 19) is gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES [1] I. Kuribayashi, M. 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