A conductive agent is a key auxiliary material of a lithium battery, which is coated on positive electrode material and negative electrode material. A certain amount of conductive agent will be added during the production of the pole piece to increase the conductivity of electrons and lithium ions.
This ratio of conductive agent enhances the conductivity of the pole piece, allowing electrons to flow between the material particles. The conduction resistance between the particles and the current collector is reduced, thereby reducing the internal resistance of the battery.
Yang ZF, Wang QJ, Shi B (2015) Effect of conductive agent on performance of positive electrode for Li-ion battery. Battery Bimonthly 45:34–36 Zhu XD, Tian J, Le SR (2013) Improved electrochemical performance of CuCrO 2 anode with CNTs as conductive agent for lithium ion batteries. Mater Lett 97:113–116
Factors for choosing a conductive agent: conductivity, amount of addition, and cost. Compared with traditional carbon black, the new conductive agent has the following features: (1) Performance advantages: the lower the impedance, the better the conductivity.
The purpose of adding a conductive agent is to form a conductive network between lithium iron phosphate particles, increase the electron migration rate, and collect microcurrent, and it is also beneficial to improve the charge–discharge performance and cycle performance of LiFePO 4 materials.
Commonly used conductive agents include Super-P, KS-6, KS-15, acetylene black, carbon nanotubes (CNT), and graphene (G) [23, 24, 25, 26].