Electrodes and rechargeable lithium batteries including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2026100371-A1
Application number	US-202519345544-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2025
Priority date	Oct 8, 2024
Publication date	Apr 9, 2026
Grant date	—

Abstract

An electrode may include a current collector, a coating layer on the current collector, and an active (e.g., electrically active) material layer on the coating layer, wherein the coating layer includes a carbon-based conductive (e.g., electrically conductive) material and a copolymer binder, and the copolymer binder includes about 5 mol % to about 20 mol % of a hydrophilic structural unit and about 80 mol % to about 95 mol % of a hydrophobic structural unit, based on 100 mol % of the copolymer binder. The electrode may maximize or increase capacity (e.g., electrical capacity) while minimizing or reducing production cost, thereby ensuring long cycle-life characteristics and improving or enhancing high-voltage characteristics and high-temperature storage characteristics. The rechargeable lithium battery including the electrode may exhibit high initial charge/discharge capacity and efficiency even under high voltage driving conditions and may implement long cycle-life characteristics.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An electrode, comprising:
a current collector; a coating layer on the current collector; and an active material layer on the coating layer; wherein the coating layer comprises a carbon-based conductive material and a copolymer binder, and the copolymer binder comprises about 5 mol % to about 20 mol % of a hydrophilic structural unit and about 80 mol % to about 95 mol % of a hydrophobic structural unit, based on 100 mol % of the copolymer binder.

2 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
a thickness of the coating layer is about 0.3 μm to about 5.0 μm.

3 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the carbon-based conductive material comprises natural graphite, artificial graphite, carbon black, Denka black, Ketjen black, a carbon nanotube, a carbon nanofiber, graphene, or a combination thereof.

4 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the copolymer binder is a phase-separable copolymer binder.

5 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the copolymer binder has a crosslinked structure.

6 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the electrode has a peak between about 0.01 Å −1 to about 5 Å −1 when small-angle X-ray scattering is measured.

7 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the copolymer binder comprises a random copolymer, a block copolymer, or a combination thereof.

8 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the hydrophilic structural unit comprises a unit derived from at least one monomer selected from among acrylic acid, maleic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, fumaric acid, 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate, vinyl acetate, and vinyl alcohol.

9 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the hydrophobic structural unit comprises a unit derived from at least one monomer selected from among an aromatic vinyl monomer, an olefin monomer, an unsaturated carboxylic acid alkyl ester monomer, a (meth)acrylic acid monomer, and an unsaturated carboxylic acid amide monomer.

10 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the copolymer binder is included in an amount of about 20 wt % to about 80 wt % based on 100 wt % of the coating layer.

11 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
a thickness of the active material layer is about 80 μm to about 250 μm.

12 . The electrode as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:
the electrode is a negative electrode.

13 . The electrode as claimed in claim 12 , wherein:
the negative electrode comprises a carbon-based negative electrode active material, lithium metal, an alloy of lithium metal, a silicon-based negative electrode active material, or a combination thereof.

14 . An electrode assembly, comprising:
a stack in which a negative electrode, a separator, and a positive electrode are sequentially stacked, and at least one selected from the negative electrode and the positive electrode is the electrode as claimed in claim 1 .

15 . A rechargeable lithium battery, comprising:
the electrode assembly as claimed in claim 14 and an electrolyte.

Assignees

• Samsung Sdi Co Ltd

Inventors

• Choi Jewon
• Kim Eunji
• Cho Yunshik
• Jung Kyunghwa
• Lee Kukjoo
• Park Sujin
• Cho Minho
• Kim Hana
• Lee Jungmin
• Nam Junghyun

Classifications

• H01M2004/027

  Negative electrodes · CPC title

• H01M2004/021

  Physical characteristics, e.g. porosity, surface area · CPC title

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• H01M4/667

  in the form of layers, e.g. coatings · CPC title

• H01M4/663

  containing carbon or carbonaceous materials as conductive part, e.g. graphite, carbon fibres · CPC title