Revisiting the electrode manufacturing: A look into electrode rheology and active material microenvironment

The microstructures on electrode level are crucial for battery performance, but the ambiguous understanding of both electrode microstructures and their structuring process causes critical challenges in controlling and evaluating the electrode quality during fabrication. In this review, analogous to the cell microenvironment well-known in biology, we introduce the concept of ‘‘active material microenvironment”(ME@AM)that is built by the ion/electron transport structures surrounding the AMs, for better understanding the significance of the electrode microstructures. Further, the scientific significance of electrode processing for electrode quality control is highlighted by its strong links to the structuring and quality control of ME@AM. Meanwhile, the roles of electrode rheology in both electrode structuring and structural characterizations involved in the entire electrode manufacturing process(i.e., slurry preparation, coating/printing/extrusion, drying and calendering) are specifically detailed. The advantages of electrode rheology testing on in-situ characterizations of the electrode qualities/structures are emphasized. This review provides a glimpse of the electrode rheology engaged in electrode manufacturing process and new insights into the understanding and effective regulation of electrode microstructures for future high-performance batteries.

Preparation of Degradable Polymenthide and Its Elastomers from Biobased Menthide via Organocatalyzed Ring-opening Polymerization and UV Curing

Development of degradable polyester elastomers plays an important role in the applications of soft mateirals.Noncrystalline polymenthides(PMs)from menthol derived lactone monomers are excellent soft segments for preparing degradable polyester elastomers.By using cyclic trimeric phosphazene base(CTPB)as an organocatalyst,we succesfully synthesized PMs with different molecular weights(8.2 kDa to 100.7 kDa)in high yields via ring-opening polymerization(ROP)of menthide.When a CTPB/urea binary catalytic system was adopted,the polymerizations proceeded in a more controlled manner.Using glycerol as initiator,star shaped PMs with well.defined structure were synthesized and subsequently end-capped by acrylate.UV iradiation of the terminal acrylate groups in the star-shaped PMs resulted in formation of chemically cos-linked polyester elastomers without heat or other stimuli.The obtained polyester elastomers exhibit matched modulus(3.8-5.5 MPa),tensile strength(0.56-0.68 MPa),and strain at break(280%-320%)with soft body tssues,displaying great potential in biomedical applications.