Paper accepted: “Comparative study on chitosans as green binder materials for LiMn2O4 positive electrodes in lithium ion batteries.”

Today, another paper with Max Linhorst as a co-author was accepted for publication in the journal ChemElectroChem. Another one on using chitosans in greener batteries, a result of the NRW Graduate School “grEEn” initiated and coordinated by Prof. Martin Winter from the Münster Electrochemical Energies Technology centre MEET. This time it is part of the doctoral project of Sven Künne who performed the first systematic test on the influence of the degree of polymerisation (DP) and the fraction of acetylation (FA) of chitosan polymers on their ability to act as an anode binder in batteries, using chitosans specifically produced and provided by Max. It turned out that low DP improves the chitosan’s ability to provide adhesion strength to the binder while low FA is better to deliver high discharge capacity. In both aspects, the best chitosan was better suited than the state-of-the-art synthetic binder polyvinylidene difluoride (PVdF). The performance of the chitosan was further increased by crosslinking it with citric acid via easily biodegradable amide bonds. Our results show that it is worthwhile – as always! – to have a more detailed look into structure-function relationships of chitosan: it does matter which chitosan one uses to achieve a desired effect. Clearly, this is not only true for the bioactivity of chitosans, our own field of expertise, but also for their material properties. We are proud that we have been able to support this study by providing our well-characterized, second generation chitosans for more environment-friendly batteries of the future.