Improvement of Rate Performance of LiFePO₄ Cathode with Porous LiFePO₄/Activated Carbon Hybrid Electrode Structure

Abstract

After preparing LiFePO₄ (LFP) and activated carbon (AC) layers on each face of an aluminum current collector, through-holes with the pore diameter of 22 µm and opening rate of 0.5% were formed on the electrode. A half cell was fabricated with the electrode and two lithium (Li) metal electrodes. The half-cell exhibited much improvement of rate performance. Because the LFP/AC electrode having no through holes and LFP electrode did not exhibit the improvement, it was considered that energy and Li⁺ transfer occurred between LFP and AC layers, and Li⁺ passed through the holes from AC to LFP.