Patent Description:
Exhaustion of non-renewable energy sources and a large increase in the use of portable electronic devices requires energy storage devices to fulfil the energy needs beyond the consumer requirement. In particular, this concerns the portable electric devices, electric vehicles and other consumer electronics. Thus, high capacity electrochemical energy storage device is needed for addressing these problems. In this aspect, electrochemical supercapacitors and battery devices have prevailing importance because of their exceptional power density and charge storage properties.

A lithium-ion battery is one important type of rechargeable battery considered as a potential energy storage device for hybrid vehicles. High specific energy and power density, long cycle life, no memory effect and high-load capabilities are making them attractive to fulfil the energy needs beyond consumer electronics and electric vehicles. A battery is needed for providing a sufficient supply of power for the continuous working of electronic vehicles or gadgets. However, a battery will be limited if the device requires a rapid power supply, where a supercapacitor can be used for the rapid delivery of the required energy.

An electrochemical capacitor, also known as ultracapacitor or supercapacitor is a class of green energy storage device with higher capacitance value than other capacitors and have the feature of the lower voltage limits. A supercapacitor can store <NUM> to <NUM> times more energy per unit mass than the electrolytic capacitors and can deliver charge much faster than the batteries, with the fast charge-discharge process. Supercapacitors are mainly used for the devices which require a large number of charge-discharge cycles rather than the long-term compact energy storage. Typical examples can be found within hybrid vehicles and electronic devices. In a hybrid electric vehicle, a supercapacitor can supplement a battery to provide sufficient power for rapid acceleration and energy recuperation during braking.

Most of the currently available energy storage devices using carbon-based electrodes for the charge storage mechanism. However, commercially available carbon-based electrodes do not meet the requirement for the high energy density applications due to its low theoretical capacity. Alternatives to carbon-based materials are tin oxide, and silicon provides high energy density. However, some of the high capacity anodes have been found unsuitable due to the capacity fading and large volume expansions. The large volume expansion and structural changes can damage the electrode material and thereby decreasing the cycling stability.

Direct growth of active material on the conductive substrates (current collector) can allow the easy processing of the electrode, improve the electrical conductivity of the active material and can avoid the use of a polymeric binder. Trinickel disulphide (Ni<NUM>S<NUM>) based materials are a promising material for the electrochemical energy storage devices due to smaller volume change and high conversion reaction mechanism. However, owing to the poor conductivity of the sulphides, a conductive carbon matrix is beneficial to improve the conductivity of the electrode. Anchoring trinickel disulphide on a conductive carbon structure can be an alternative to overcome these issues.

<CIT> reveals the application of metal sulphide composite materials for battery applications. The inventors have used a core-shell composite of Li<NUM>S, metal oxide and conductive carbon as the electroactive material. An electrode material with a combination of iron metal, and lithium fluoride, lithium oxide, and/or lithium sulphide was illustrated in <CIT>et al. [<NUM>], Chandu et al. [<NUM>], Dai et al. [<NUM>], Wang et al. [<NUM>] explained different methods for the growth of Ni<NUM>S<NUM> based materials on carbon backbone as an electrode material for energy storage devices. However, in all these cases, functional additives were used for the preparation of electrodes. This indicates the need for further processing to convert active material to the electrode.

A method for the preparation cobalt sulphide-nickel-carbon nanofiber composite material was given in <CIT>. The inventors have used different methods, which include pre-oxidation high-temperature carbonisation technology, a hydrothermal method for preparing the electrodes. <CIT> discloses a preparation method for nitrogen-doped graphene cladding nickel sulphide composite electrode materials. The invention was also comprised of high-temperature annealing for the preparation of electrode material. High-temperature synthesis conditions are not a suitable option for the large scale growth of electrode materials due to large energy consumption and critical treatment conditions.

The inventors are explaining a method for fabricating a carbon nanotube-metal sulfide composites in the innovation <CIT>. The inventors have used post-synthetic ultra-centrifugation purification techniques for the selective area functionalisation, and the metal sulfide compounds are deposited to the carbon nanotubes by atomic layer deposition techniques. The manufacturing, processing and compositing of the carbon nanotube-metal sulfide nanostructure involve multiple steps including purification and separation. <CIT> and <CIT> reveal the application of array type three Ni-based combination electrode for sodium-ion battery. The electrode was designated as Ni/Ni<NUM>S<NUM>/carbon nanotubes based structure. The inventors used a hydrothermal curing technique for the direct fabrication of electroactive material on a conductive substrate for the preparation of electrode material. However, electrode fabrication involves multiple chemical processing steps and a longer time period (more than <NUM>).

Zhang et al. [<NUM>] explained a one-step synthesis of reduced graphene oxide/Ni<NUM>S<NUM> based electrodes for high-performance supercapacitors, where the active materials were prepared by chemical methods. Chen et al. [<NUM>] demonstrated the preparation of sponge-like NiS/Ni<NUM>S<NUM> hybrid nanosheets for supercapacitors using chemical treatment techniques. Tian et al. [<NUM>] explained a method for constructing Ni<NUM>S<NUM> wrapped by reduced graphene oxide on carbon cloth for supercapacitor application. Zhang et al. [<NUM>], Zhu et al. [<NUM>], and Jiang et al. [<NUM>] explained different methods for the direct growth of having explored Ni<NUM>S<NUM> based materials as an electrode for energy storage devices. In all these cases, preparation of the electrode material involves multiple processes, different chemicals and longer time period (more than <NUM>). Among all these methods, Ni<NUM>S<NUM> based metal sulphides combined with a conductive carbon structure used as an electrode for energy storage devices provided higher capacity, better stability and higher energy density compared to plain carbon-based electrodes. However, an alternative technique that can fasten the electrode preparation can overcome the issues related to the longer electrode preparation procedure. An electrode material with intimate contact with the current collector and with large surface area that can participate in electrochemical reaction can significantly improve the energy storage performance. Direct growth of hierarchical carbon nanostructures as conductive channel, which are then composed with high specific energy material will solve the issue related to the stability and performance of the energy storage device.

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition can be used as an alternative technique for the direct growth of conductive carbon nanostructures, which also enables to control the orientation of carbon material. <CIT> reveals the synthesis of carbon nanotubes in the presence of a catalyst material heated by a heating method such as microwave irradiation, electromagnetic inductive heating, radio frequency heating or laser heating. <CIT> reveals the growth of carbon nanotubes, which are grown as in the form of rising from the substrate surface. Carbon nanostructures with catalyst nanoparticle on the backbone can be potentially tuned to make hybrid composites. <CIT> provides a method for synthesising nanotubes coated with metal sulphide, selenide or telluride. The processes in the aforementioned patents involve multiple steps and high-temperature treatments. Mohamadalizadeh et al. [<NUM>] explained a procedure for the sulphur decorated carbon nanotubes using hydrogen sulphide oxidation at the low-temperature reaction. However, in both process, there is no control over the anchoring of sulphur on the carbon nanotube backbone.

<CIT> discloses an energy storage device with high capacity electrochemically active materials including a nickel sulfide-doped 3D carbon nanotube foam composite material. The nickel sulfide-doped 3D carbon nanotube is synthesised by using a nickel-doped 3D carbon nanotube net as a substrate and using a hydrothermal reaction to synthesise the foam composite material. <CIT> discloses a tip growth mechanism for growing carbon nanotubes on a substrate with catalyst particles thereon, resulting in a catalyst particle at the tip of each CNT. The process includes a first step wherein a layer of catalyst material is deposited on a substrate. <CIT> discloses a process wherein CNTs are produced on a metal oxide layer on a metal substrate and not directly on the metal substrate. Only base-growth is disclosed as the seed crystal is embedded in in the buried end of the CNT. <CIT> discloses an application of a nickel sulfide/carbon nanotube flexible composite thin film material on a supercapacitor. The CNTs are produced do not point in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the conductive metal substrate, but rather form a random 'carbon nanotube network' having a 3D porous structure.

<CIT> discloses an electrode made of carbon nanotubes. The sulfur or metal nanoparticles are bonded, deposited or fused on the surfaces of the CNTs so that the CNTs are bonded to each other and also bonded to the current collector. <CIT> discloses multilayer carbon nanotube capacitators. The capacitators are formed by depositing a plurality of carbon nanotube-magnetic catalyst. <CIT> discloses a method for manufacturing supercapacitor electrodes. The method comprises applying a buffer layer, a catalytic bed, a dielectric layer, an insulating layer in the dielectric layer of the window matrix to a catalytic bed, deposition in the windows of arrays of vertically oriented carbon nanotubes, the functionalization of the surface of carbon nanotubes by oxygen-containing groups, the layer formation of polyaniline containing the isotope C-<NUM>, on vertically oriented carbon nanotubes by electrochemical deposition, and lastly annealing. Jeon et al. [<NUM>] disclose Ni<NUM>Si<NUM>/Ni structures synthesised on the surface of the 3D carbon fiber webs (CFWs) using electroless plating of Ni and subsequent sulfuration. Milne et al. [<NUM>] discloses carbon nanotube and nanofiber growth by catalytic CVD method. The addition of trace amounts of thiophene (sulfur containing compound) to liquid hydrocarbons is reported to promote the growth of single wall carbon nanotubes.

In this aspect, the direct growth of carbon nanostructures by plasma-enhanced techniques, preferably vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT) on a conductive substrate can be a promising structure for anchoring sulphur. Presence of metallic nanoparticles on the carbon backbone enables the controlled transformation of the metallic nanoparticle to metal sulphide compounds. The vertical alignment of these composite structures is specifically designed for the maximum available surface area of active material to interact with the electrolyte solution. As an example, CNT deposited on nickel substrate contains nickel nanoparticle, which upon sulphur anchoring gets converted to nickel sulphide compounds. Therefore, this, nickel sulphide/vertically aligned CNT based hybrid hierarchical structure could be a potential composite material for excellent electrochemical energy storage performance.

The present invention addresses a fast two-step method for the preparation of hybrid binder-free electrodes for electrochemical energy storage devices. In the present invention, a method is provided for manufacturing metal sulphide-carbon nanostructure based hybrid binder-free electrode for electrochemical energy storage devices. The electrode material prepared by this invention comprises of a metal sulphide anchored on a conductive vertically oriented carbon matrix on a conductive substrate made of the same metal as the sulphide.

The scope of the present invention is defined by the appended set of claims. Hence, in a first aspect, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a hybrid binder-free electrode for electrochemical energy storage devices, said hybrid binder-free electrode comprising, preferably consisting of, a conductive metal substrate and carbon nanotubes attached to the conductive metal substrate, wherein each carbon nanotube has only one single-crystal metal nanoparticle positioned at its tip with a metal sulphide top layer, the method comprising the following subsequent steps:.

wherein no binder is applied during the process.

In this invention, we have used metal foils with catalytic properties as the conductive substrate (e.g. nickel, copper, cobalt). The composition of electrode material comprises of metal sulphide anchored on carbon backbone, which is deposited on the said metal foil. The carbon backbone, which is vertically oriented on the metal foil, comprises of multi-walled carbon nanotubes with a diameter of <NUM>-<NUM> and faceted with a metallic nanoparticle at its top. The said vertically aligned carbon nanotubes are fabricated by a low-pressure plasma deposition system in a methane atmosphere. Later, the said vertically aligned carbon nanotubes deposited on conductive substrate is thermally treated in a sulphur-containing atmosphere for the fabrication of metal sulphide-carbon nanotube-based composite material. The metal sulphide preferably comprises of a polycrystalline structure. The said composite material is directly grown on the conductive substrate, and use of this material as a binder-free electrode for energy storage devices will address the challenges related to the electrode fabrication. As an example, we have fabricated composite material on a nickel substrate in the form of upstanding trinickel disulphide-nickel-carbon nanotube structure and used as a negative electrode for lithium-ion batteries. The negative electrode prepared by the example presented in the invention delivered a reversible capacity above <NUM> mAh g-<NUM> after <NUM> cycles at a current density of <NUM> mA g-<NUM>. Moreover, the negative electrode possesses long-term stability by maintaining a reversible capacity above <NUM> mAh g-<NUM> after <NUM> cycles at a current density of <NUM> mA g-<NUM>. As an electrode for supercapacitor device, the electrode prepared by the present invention during a charge-discharge cycling at a current density of <NUM> A·g-<NUM> said electrode after many cycles (more than <NUM>) delivers a specific capacity of more than <NUM> C·g-<NUM>, and wherein the specific capacity retains above <NUM> % of the initial specific capacity (more than <NUM> C·g-<NUM>) at higher current densities (more than <NUM> A·g-<NUM>).

In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a hybrid binder-free electrode for electrochemical energy storage devices obtained by the method of the invention, said hybrid binder-free electrode comprising, preferably consisting of, a conductive metal substrate with carbon nanotubes having an average length of preferably <NUM> to <NUM> and an average diameter of preferably <NUM> to <NUM> attached thereto, wherein each carbon nanotube has only one single-crystal metal nanoparticle positioned at its tip with a metal sulphide layer on top of the single-crystal metal nanoparticle, wherein the carbon nanotubes point in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the conductive metal substrate, wherein the metal of the single-crystal metal nanoparticles, the metal of the metal sulphide layer and the metal of the conductive metal substrate are the same, and wherein the metal sulphide layer on top of the single-crystal metal nanoparticle is preferably in the form of polycrystalline nanostructures, more preferably in the form of polycrystalline nanostructures with individual crystallite sizes of between <NUM> and <NUM>.

In another aspect of the disclosure, not part of the claims, there is provided a hybrid binder-free electrode for electrochemical energy storage devices, said hybrid binder-free electrode comprising, preferably consisting of, a conductive metal substrate with carbon nanotubes having an average length of preferably <NUM> to <NUM> and an average diameter of preferably <NUM> to <NUM> attached thereto, wherein each carbon nanotube has only one single-crystal metal nanoparticle positioned at its tip with a metal sulphide layer on top of the single-crystal metal nanoparticle, wherein the carbon nanotubes point in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the conductive metal substrate, wherein the metal of the single-crystal metal nanoparticles, the metal of the metal sulphide layer and the metal of the conductive metal substrate are the same, and wherein the metal sulphide layer on top of the single-crystal metal nanoparticle is preferably in the form of polycrystalline nanostructures, more preferably in the form of polycrystalline nanostructures with individual crystallite sizes of between <NUM> and <NUM>.

In another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided the use of hybrid binder-free electrode obtained according to the method of the invention:.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages:.

The present invention may be understood more readily in accordance with the following detailed description of the invention taken in connection with associated figures. It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to specific methods, conditions, devices, or parameters that are described herein. The expressions used in this present invention is for particular embodiments by way of example and is not intended to be limiting of the claimed invention.

The expression "VCN" shall be understood as vertically aligned carbon nanotube to define the orientation of deposited carbon is perpendicular to the conductive metal substrate. The expression "carbon structures with faceted metallic nanoparticle" shall be understood to define the vertical carbon nanostructures terminated with a single crystal metallic nanoparticle. The expression sccm shall be understood as a standard cubic centimetre per minute. It is a volumetric measure unit of flow defined at standard conditions: temperature of <NUM>,<NUM> and pressure of <NUM> Pa. The expression "binder-free electrode" shall be understood as any polymeric binder is not used during the electrode fabrication.

To define the geometry and dimension of VCN, the VCN is described as having a length (largest dimension) and a diameter (smallest dimension). The length of VCN produced by the method of the invention is higher than <NUM>, and the diameter is not greater than <NUM>. To define the geometry of the metallic nanoparticle, the nanoparticle is described as having a thickness, which is no greater than <NUM>. The geometry of metal sulphide located on VCN produced by the method of the invention is described as having polycrystalline phases, where the size of individual crystallite is not greater than <NUM>.

A preferential fabrication of carbon nanostructure used for the preferred embodiment of the present invention is the vapour deposition process, preferably a plasma deposition system. Schematic for the experimental setup of a plasma vapour deposition system shown in <FIG>. The plasma system consists of a dielectric chamber, preferably borosilicate glass with a preferable geometry of cross-type glass tube. The chamber is coupled to a high-frequency plasma generator, preferably <NUM> radio-frequency plasma generator (rf) through a copper antenna. A conductive metal foil (e.g. nickel, copper, cobalt) is used as the substrate for the deposition. The thickness of the said metal foil is greater than <NUM>, preferably <NUM>. The substrate is placed on a conductive substrate holder, which is electrically grounded during the process. The chamber is evacuated to low pressure below <NUM> Pa using a rotary vacuum pump. The pressure inside the chamber is measured using any low-pressure pressure gauge. Carbon-containing gas is supplied to the processing chamber for the deposition process, and it is fed through a mass flow controller at a flow rate not less than <NUM> sccm. The plasma is ignited at power not higher than <NUM> W for the deposition of carbon nanostructures. The plasma deposition process has done for a time period of not less than <NUM>. The processing chamber and substrate holder is not supported by any external heating stage during the deposition process. The substrate is heated due to the plasma heating effects during the deposition itself. The said substrate is taken out after the plasma deposition and after the temperature of the substrate holder drop below a threshold value, preferably below <NUM>. The resulting product is a metal foil with vertically oriented carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes are multi-walled with diameters between <NUM> and <NUM> and an average height between <NUM>-<NUM>. Their upstanding tips are faceted by crystal nanoparticle from the same metal as the substrate.

A preferred example of the present invention is a method for the synthesis of metal sulphide-carbon nanostructure composite material. The material is fabricated in the presence of sulphur-containing gas by a thermal annealing method in a processing chamber. The said chamber is a long cylindrical quartz tube attached to a furnace system. The said carbon nanostructures deposited on a conductive metal substrate, which can be produced by a method described in this disclosure or other method are placed in the said processing chamber. Best results in terms of uniformity of the compound are obtained when only one gas is used. Therefore, the processing chamber is evacuated to a pressure below <NUM> Pa, preferably below <NUM> Pa using a vacuum pump and a pressure gauge. In the next step, the said processing chamber heated to a temperature between <NUM> and <NUM>, preferably between <NUM>-<NUM>. Later, sulphur-containing gas is leaked into the processing chamber. The pressure exerted by the sulphur-containing gas is between <NUM> Pa and <NUM>*<NUM><NUM> Pa, preferably <NUM>*<NUM><NUM>-<NUM>*<NUM><NUM> Pa. The said carbon nanostructures on a conductive substrate and metal nanoparticle top are kept inside the processing chamber at said conditions for a time period between <NUM> and <NUM>, preferably <NUM>-<NUM>. The said processing chamber evacuated to atmospheric pressure after the processing time to remove the excess sulphur-containing gas in the chamber. Later the metal sulphide-carbon nanostructures deposited on the conductive substrate has taken out, preferably after the temperature of the processing chamber reaches below a pain threshold, preferably <NUM>. The schematic of the said processing chamber is presented in <FIG>. The said product is directly grown on the conductive substrate and can directly use as a binder-free electrode for energy storage devices.

The following example serves to demonstrate the preferred embodiments of the present invention and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the invention:.

Method of inventions has been applied to prepare a metal sulphide-carbon nanostructure-based binder-free electrode. In this example, metallic nickel foil with a thickness of <NUM> and a diameter of <NUM> is used as the conductive substrate. As the first step, carbon nanostructure was deposited on the nickel foil using plasma-assisted deposition system. The nickel foil was placed on the substrate holder inside the plasma processing chamber in the middle of the coil (<FIG>). The sample holder was electrically grounded during the deposition. Then the processing chamber - borosilicate glass tube - was evacuated with a rotary vacuum pump to a low-pressure below <NUM> Pa. Then methane gas was leaked into the processing chamber as the carbon precursor at the flow rate of <NUM> sccm. The pressure inside the processing chamber was <NUM> Pa. After establishing the atmosphere for carbon deposition, the RF generator was turned on at a power <NUM> W. After <NUM> the RF generator and methane supply was turned off. The temperature of the sample holder reaches <NUM>-<NUM> during the deposition process due to the plasma heating effects. After an additional <NUM>, the temperature of the sample holder was cooled to a temperature below the threshold pain. The processing chamber was vent and opened to take out the sample. To observe the morphology of the deposited carbon nanostructure, SEM analysis was performed. <FIG> presents the SEM micrograph of the surface morphology of the as-deposited carbon nanostructure, in particular the vertically aligned tube-like structure with a faceted nickel nanoparticle on top directly grown on the conductive nickel substrate.

In the next step, the nickel foil with the deposited carbon nanostructure was placed in a thermal treatment chamber for the growth of metal sulphide. The processing chamber was evacuated to a low-pressure below <NUM> Pa. Then hydrogen sulphide (H<NUM>S) gas was leaked into the processing chamber as the sulphur-containing gas and the pressure inside the chamber was kept as <NUM>*<NUM><NUM> Pa. The temperature of the chamber was elevated to <NUM> with a rate of <NUM>/min using a furnace, and annealed for <NUM>. Afterwards, the furnace was let to cool down to room temperature, and the H<NUM>S gas was pumped out. During this step, the sulphides have successfully formed from the nickel nanostructures without destroying the underlying carbon nanostructures. <FIG> shows the SEM micrograph of the composite material containing metal and carbon nanostructure, in particular VCN and nickel sulphide. Both nanostructures are vertically aligned on the substrate surface with an average height between <NUM>-<NUM> and uniformly covering the substrate surface. <FIG> presents the TEM micrograph of the individual tube-like structure of carbon nanostructure with an average diameter of <NUM>-<NUM> with a faceted metallic Ni nanoparticle at the tip. No other nanoparticles are observed on the backbone of the VCN structure due to the fact that VCN is grown by a tip-growth mechanism. <FIG> shows the TEM micrograph of the composite material containing metal and carbon nanostructure, in particular VCN and nickel sulphide. The sulphur is only attached to the faceted Ni nanoparticle with an average size of <NUM>-<NUM>. The composite material is comprised of nickel sulphide with a nickel core and VCN backbone. There are no other sulphur nanoparticles observed on the backbone of the VCN due to the fact that sulphur is only attached to the Ni nanoparticles. The nickel sulphide is formed in the form of polycrystalline with an average individual crystallite size of <NUM>-<NUM>. To identify the phase of nickel sulphide selected area diffraction (SAED) pattern of the composite was analysed. <FIG> represents the experimental corresponding simulated patterns of SAED. SAED is corresponding to the Ni<NUM>S<NUM> (heazlewoodite) crystal structure and also to the Ni and carbon, which is due to the presence of Ni core and VCN backbone. The obtained composite product is confirmed as Ni<NUM>S<NUM>/Ni/VCN hybrid hierarchical structure.

Claim 1:
A method for manufacturing a hybrid binder-free electrode for electrochemical energy storage devices, said hybrid binder-free electrode comprising, preferably consisting of, a conductive metal substrate and carbon nanotubes attached to the conductive metal substrate, wherein each carbon nanotube has only one single-crystal metal nanoparticle positioned at its tip with a metal sulphide top layer, the method comprising the following subsequent steps:
a) growing carbon nanotubes, preferably multi-walled carbon nanotubes, in a processing chamber (<NUM>) using a tip-growth mechanism, wherein each carbon nanotube has only one single-crystal metal nanoparticle positioned at its tip, on a conductive metal substrate in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the conductive metal substrate, wherein the metal of the single-crystal metal nanoparticles and the metal of the conductive metal substrate are the same;
b) providing the carbon nanotubes grown on the conductive metal substrate (<NUM>) as obtained in step (a) in another processing chamber (<NUM>) and evacuating said processing chamber (<NUM>) to a pressure below <NUM> Pa, preferably to a pressure below <NUM> Pa, using a vacuum pump (<NUM>) and a pressure gauge (<NUM>);
c) supplying sulphur-containing gas (<NUM>) to the evacuated processing chamber (<NUM>) of step (b) to obtain a partial pressure of the sulphur-containing gas of between <NUM> Pa and <NUM>·<NUM><NUM> Pa;
d) setting the temperature inside the processing chamber (<NUM>) to between <NUM> and <NUM>, preferably to between <NUM> and <NUM>, with a heating element (<NUM>);
e) allowing the single-crystal metal nanoparticles at the tips of the carbon nanotubes to interact with the sulphur-containing gas (<NUM>) inside the processing chamber (<NUM>), leading to the formation of a metal sulphide top layer on the single-crystal metal nanoparticles; and
f) assuring that the temperature of the processing chamber (<NUM>) drops below a threshold value, preferably below <NUM>, and subsequently venting the processing chamber (<NUM>) to atmospheric pressure,
wherein no binder is applied during the process.