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Utilization of electroless plating to prepare Cu-coated cotton cloth electrode for flexible Li-ion batteries

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Abstract

Flexible, lightweight and high conductivity substrates are required for the development of next-generation flexible Li-ion batteries (LIBs). In addition, the interfacial strength between the active material and flexible substrate should be optimized for high-performance LIBs. Herein, cotton cloth (CC) is employed as a flexible substrate, and electroless plating is utilized to deposit a layer of Cu nanoparticles, which enhances the conductivity of CC and acts as a precursor for the active material, i.e., CuO. The results reveal that the in situ etching and subsequent heat treatment converted Cu film into CuO nanowires on CC substrate. Moreover, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are introduced to enhance the connectivity of CuO nanowires. Consequently, the CuO/CNT/CC electrode rendered a high areal capacity of > 700 μAh·cm−2 after 100 charge/discharge cycles as well as excellent rate capability. The current work presents a novel route to develop desirable substrates for next-generation flexible Li-ion batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21701022 and 51690161), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. N182505037 and N182410001), the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST (No. 2018QNRC001), the Liao Ning Revitalization Talents Program (No. XLYC1807214) and the National Training Program of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Undergraduates (No. 201910145260).

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Author notes

  1. Mai Shi and Shun Wu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Mai Shi, Zhen-Dong Han, Shuang Li & Shuang Yuan

  2. Key Laboratory of Electromagnetic Processing of Materials (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Shun Wu & Qiang Wang

  3. Foreign Studies College of Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Yu-Ting Pan

  4. The State Key Lab of Rolling and Automation, and Key Laboratory of Ecological Metallurgy of Multimetallic Mineral (Ministry of Education), Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110819, China

    Mai Shi & Zhen-Dong Han

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  1. Mai Shi
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Correspondence to Shuang Yuan.

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Shi, M., Wu, S., Han, ZD. et al. Utilization of electroless plating to prepare Cu-coated cotton cloth electrode for flexible Li-ion batteries. Rare Met. 40, 400–408 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01582-3

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