0 ml of dimethyl formamide (DMF) solvent. The PVDF attaches to C and Si particles via weak van-der-Waals forces. The mixing of polymer is complete in 2 h. A second SB202190 price solution of carbon-based material is made by dissolving 1.0 gm of CNS or CNS-Si in 20 ml of DMF solution. The mixture is stirred for 20 h and then sonicated buy AZD3965 for 4 h. The above two solutions are mixed and further stirred for several hours at room temperature and finally sonicated for 1 to 2 hs before use as coating on nickel strips. The strips of nickel foam are cut in exact dimensions (usually 2 × 7 cm) and are weighed individually and labeled. These foam strips are washed thoroughly by soaking

in acetone and rinsed with fresh acetone and oven-dried at 150°C. The weight of each strip is recorded before they are being coated. Anode fabrication For anode fabrication, first, nickel strips are dipped in the prepared coating mixture above and dried in air. Air-dried strips are mechanically pressed and further dried in

air and finally in a hot oven (100°C). The weight of each dried strip is recorded. These strips are coated again, drying steps were repeated, and weights are recorded. Strips are pressed one more time and coated again and completely dried in air and hot oven. Heat treatment of PVDF-based CNS-Si anodes under argon atmosphere has been found to significantly improve the binder’s adhesion to selleck chemicals llc both CNS-Si particle-coated nickel strips and to the copper foil current collector, resulting in improved stability of the battery during

cycling [30]. The final weight of each strip is recorded. These strips are used in battery assembly. Cathode fabrication Electrodes Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase were prepared with LiCoO2 powders, PVDF (Aldrich, Wyoming, IL, USA) as binder and carbon black (MTI) at the 85:5:10% w/w ratio, using (DMF) (Aldrich) as solvent. The mixture was sonicated for 8 h for the formation of a homogeneous solution. The mixture was painted on Aluminum films (100 μm) and, in order to evaporate the solvent, the electrodes were dried at 120 C for 24 h in vacuum. Battery pouch fabrication Pouch-type cells were assembled in Glovebox under argon atmosphere. As separator, polyethylene with thickness 16 ~ 25 μm, surface density 10 ~ 14 g/m2, porosity 36 ~ 44%, pore size 0.01 ~ 0.1 μm, mainly 0.03 μm, penetration strength 0.5 ~ 0.65 kg/mm, tensile strength <600 N/m, and shut-off temperature 131 ~ 133°C was used. The electrodes were immersed in nonaqueous electrolyte (1 M LiPF6 in ethyl carbonate/dimethyl carbonate 1:1) for 12 h, after which the pouch cell was hermetically sealed in laminated aluminum case and tested. Electrochemical characterization The fabricated anodes along with a commercial one were integrated and tested with matching commercial cathode materials; both anode and cathode are available from MTI Corporation (Richmond, CA, USA).