Battery electrode and method of making

Abstract

An improvement is provided for the manufacture of perhalogenated polymer, e.g., PTFE, bonded electrodes. The formulation comprises a mixture of an active material is carbon monofluoride (otherwise known as fluorinated graphite or fluorinated carbon or CF.sub.x or (C.sub.2 F).sub.n); a conductive carbon additive, such as acetylene black or graphite; and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The process comprises high shear mixing to cause the PTFE to fibrillate. The mixture is then wet with a non-polymeric pore-former to make the mixture more pliable and to create micropores in the electrode when the solution is removed by evaporation. The wet mixture is then sequentially suitably formed into a, e.g., extruded, or calendered or pressed to flatten the mixture to a thin sheet and rolled up and folded and pressed out again until a uniform sheet is obtained and the like. The resulting product affords a sheet which is relatively flexible, and stronger and allows a lower PTFE loading than has been obtained with other electrode sheet materials formed with fibrillatable polymers. The higher the PTFE content, the higher the voltage losses for the electrode.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.