Patent ID: 11876168
Assignee: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  Y | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method forming a composite for a lithium-ion battery electrode, comprising:
exfoliating a graphene source material with a medium comprising an organic solvent at least partially miscible with water and ethyl cellulose at least partially soluble in said organic solvent to obtain an exfoliated graphene-ethyl cellulose composition containing few-layered graphene comprising mono-, bi- and n-layered graphene, n being an integer selected from 3 to 6, and the ethyl cellulose;
agitating a mixture of nanoparticles of a material selected from lithium-ion cathode active materials for a lithium-ion battery and lithium-ion anode active materials for a lithium-ion battery, and said exfoliated graphene-ethyl cellulose composition in a solvent to disperse said nanoparticles and said few-layered graphene with the ethyl cellulose so as to prevent aggregation of said nanoparticles;
evaporating the solvent from the mixture to form a dispersion of said nanoparticles and said few-layered graphene with the ethyl cellulose; and
ambient annealing the dispersion at a temperature for a period of time to decompose the ethyl cellulose, thereby resulting in said composite,
wherein said few-layered graphene is not graphene oxide and is not reduced graphene oxide.