Norbornene-Functionalized Plant Oils for Biobased Thermoset Films and Binders of Silicon-Graphite Composite Electrodes

Duy Le; Chanatip Samart; Jyh-Tsung Lee; Kotohiro Nomura; Suwadee Kongparakul; Suda Kiatkamjornwong

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c02645

Norbornene-Functionalized Plant Oils for Biobased Thermoset Films and Binders of Silicon-Graphite Composite Electrodes

ACS Omega. 2020 Nov 9;5(46):29678-29687. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c02645. eCollection 2020 Nov 24.

Authors

Duy Le¹, Chanatip Samart^{1

2}, Jyh-Tsung Lee³, Kotohiro Nomura⁴, Suwadee Kongparakul^{1

2}, Suda Kiatkamjornwong^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
² Bioenergy and Biochemical Refinery Technology Program, Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand.
³ Department of Chemistry, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami Osawa, Hachioji, Tokyo 192-0397, Japan.
⁵ Office of University Research Affairs, Chulalongkorn University, 254 Phayathai Road, Wangmai, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.
⁶ FRST, Academy of Science, Office of the Royal Society, Sanam Suea Pa, Khet Dusit, Bangkok 10300, Thailand.

Abstract

We herein report the functionalization of plant oil with norbornene (NB) and subsequent polymerization to prepare biobased thermoset films and biobased binders for silicon/mesocarbon microbead (MCMB) composite electrodes for use in lithium-ion batteries. A series of NB-functionalized plant oils were prepared as biobased thermoset films via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) in the presence of a second-generation Grubbs catalyst with tunable thermomechanical properties. Increasing the catalyst loading and cross-linking agent increased cross-link density, storage modulus (E'), and glass transition temperature (T _g), while the numbers of unreacted or oligomeric components in the films were reduced. High number of NB rings per triglyceride in the plant oil encouraged monomer incorporation to form a polymer network, therefore accounting for the high T _g and E' values. Furthermore, the NB-functionalized plant oil and 2,5-norbornadiene (NBD) were copolymerized as bioderived binders for silicone/MCMB composite electrodes of lithium-ion batteries via ROMP during electrode preparation. Cell performance investigation showed that the silicone/MCMB composite electrode bearing the NBD-cross-linked NB-functionalized plant oil binder exhibited a higher C-rate and cycle-life performance than that using a conventional poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) binder. Finally, the electrode based on the bioderived binder exhibited a high specific charge capacity of 620 mA h g^-1 at 0.5 C.