Stretched to the Limit for Better Batteries

Conventional polymeric binders used within Li-ion battery electrodes cannot withstand the large volume changes exhibited by high-capacity alloying anode materials such as silicon, resulting in fast capacity decay with cycling. In this issue of Joule, Xu and coworkers report a new cross-linked polymer binder that enables excellent capacity retention over hundreds of cycles in silicon microparticle-based electrodes. To achieve this performance, this binder strongly adheres to the silicon while also exhibiting substantial mechanical elasticity and self-healing functionality.