Facile electrodeposition of copper layers on graphene film as high performance current collector for lithium-ion batteries

The increasing demand on high energy density and rate performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) drives all battery components forward, including electrochemically inactive components. Herein, Cu coated graphene film (GF@Cu) is fabricated via electroplating method as a composite current collector with low areal density (3.44 mg cm−2), high electrical conductivity (3.25*107 S m−1), excellent thermal conductivity (836.20 W m−1K−1), and good weldability. By substituting Cu current collector with this lightweight GF@Cu in lithium-ion batteries, the graphite anode realizes an 246.01 % increasement of gravimetric capacity at 1C. The lithium-ion batteries equipped with GF@Cu current collector can also obviously improve the rate and cycling performance during charging/discharging at high current density by reducing the interfacial contact resistance and increasing the electrical and thermal conductivities.