Negative electrode for a lithium-ion electrochemical cell and method of forming same

A method of forming a negative electrode for a lithium-ion electrochemical cell, the method comprising:

• attaching a tab formed from nickel to a current collector formed from a copper matrix to form a pre-tabbed current collector;
• disposing the pre-tabbed current collector onto a non-stick substrate including polytetrafluoroethylene to form a workpiece;
• casting a slurry onto the workpiece to form a film disposed on the pre-tabbed current collector, wherein the slurry includes:
• an active material component;
• one or more carbon additives;
• and
• at least one of a filamentary copper additive and a dendritic copper additive;
• drying the film at a first temperature to form a dried film;
• curing the dried film under pressure at a second temperature that is higher than the first temperature to form a cured film;
• removing the cured film from the non-stick substrate to form a precursor film;
• and
• carbonizing and annealing the precursor film at a third temperature that is higher than the second temperature;
• wherein carbonizing forms a three-dimensional electrically-conductive network and annealing forms a contiguous network of copper connected to the active material component to thereby form the negative electrode.