Ashland unveils new lithium-ion battery binders at Battery Japan 2015

ASHLAND Specialty Ingredients, a commercial unit of Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH), will launch new lithium-ion battery binders at Battery Japan 2015, which will run from February 25 to 27 at Tokyo Big Sight.

 

The company’s Bondwell (TM) BVH9 carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) is an aqueous binder for natural graphite anodes, while the PVP K-Series polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) polymers serve as binders for ceramic-coated separators. 

 

The Bondwell BVH9 CMC binder features good dispersion for both natural graphite and conductive carbon black particles, and copper collectors. It can be used with many commercial styrene butadiene (SB) latexes. Coin cells that use the binder have demonstrated significantly low impedance and optimum capacity retention across a range of charge-discharge rates.

 

The CMC binder is produced in the company’s facility in Jiangmen, China. According to Kenji Hanada, Tokyo-based senior marketing specialist at Industrial Specialties, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, the Bondwell BVH features optimized physical and electrochemical properties to provide lithium-ion cell producers in the Asia-Pacific region with a cost-effective binder.

 

 

The physical and electrochemical properties of the PVP K-Series of binders promise better coating performance than commonly used polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) or polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) binders.

 

“They have better solubility characteristics, superior dispersion performance, excellent cohesive properties, and good electrochemical stability,” added Hanada.

 

Ceramic-coated separators improve battery performance. They reduce separator shrinkage at high temperatures while improving mechanical strength and compression resistance, all of which contribute to enhancing lithium-ion battery safety