Textile-Type Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode Enabling High Specific/Areal Capacities and High Rate Capability through Ligand Replacement Reaction-Mediated Assembly

Achieving high energy storage performance and fast rate capability at the same time is one of the most critical challenges in battery technology. Here, a high-performance textile cathode with notable specific/areal capacities and high rate capability through an interfacial interaction-mediated assembly that can directly bridge all interfaces existing between textile and conductive materials and between conductive and active materials, minimizing unnecessary insulating organics is reported. First, amine (NH₂)- and carboxylic acid (COOH)-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are alternately layer-by-layer (LbL)-assembled onto cellulose textiles for the preparation of conductive textiles using hydrogen bonding interactions. Dioleamide-stabilized LiFePO₄ nanoparticles (DA-LFP NPs) with high crystallinity and high dispersion stability in organic media are consecutively LbL-assembled with MWNT-NH₂ onto conductive textiles through ligand replacement between native DA ligands bound to the surface of the LFP NPs and NH₂ groups of MWNTs. In this case, 35 nm sized LFP NPs are densely and uniformly adsorbed onto all regions of the textile, and additionally, their areal capacities are increased according to the deposition number without a significant loss of charge transfer kinetics. The formed textile cathodes exhibit remarkable specific/areal capacities (196 mAh g⁻¹/8.3 mAh cm⁻² at 0.1 C) and high rate capability with highly flexible mechanical properties.