Simple approach to advanced binder-free nitrogen-doped graphene electrode for lithium batteries

A simple binder-free synthesis approach of just rubbing nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide (N-RGO) powder on a mechanically grinded Cu-foil substrate with a rough surface is proposed for a lithium ion battery (LIB). The nitrogen content of N-RGO is found to be 2.1 wt%. The binder-free N-RGO electrode shows excellent reversible capacity of 551 mA h g^-1 as compared to 433 mA h g^-1 of the binder-added N-RGO electrode at a current density of 50 mA g^-1 after 100 cycles. The process is not only highly reproducible and successful, but also results in high LIB performance, proposing easy scaling-up of such an electrode for commercial application.