Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the main energy storage system used in portable devices. Their outstanding characteristics allied to the growing market of portable devices and electric vehicles provides batteries an increasing trend over the next years. During the past decade, improved materials for LIBs have been developed, with less attention be. ••Electrode fabrication process is essential in determining battery performance.••Electrode final properties depend on processing steps including mixing, casting, spreading, and solvent evaporation conditions.••The effect of these steps on the final properties of battery electrodes are presented.••Recent developments in electrode preparation are summarized.••Guidelines. Electrode fabricationLithium-ion batteriesRechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are nowadays the most used energy storage system in the market, being applied in a large variety of applications including portable electronic devices (such as sensors, notebooks, music players and smartphones) with small and medium sized batteries, and electric vehicles, with large size batteries. The market of LIB is estimated at $41.1 billion in 2021, with a forecast compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3% up to 2030,.Compared to other battery technologies, the main advantages of LIBs are being lightweight, low-cost, presenting high energy and power density, no memory effect, prolonged service-life, low charge lost (self-discharge), higher number of charge/discharge cycles and being relatively safe,. Despite those advantages, properties including specific energy, power, safety and reliability are key issues to further improve in LIBs. The main components or LIBs are the electrodes (anode and cathode) and the separator or solid polymer electrolyte,.Independently of the electrode type, they are composed of a polymer binder (PB), a conductive additive (CA) and an active material (AM). The main function of the polymer binder is to hold together the active material and conductive additive, improving the mechanical stability, particles cohesion and flexibility of the electrodes. The conductive additive allows to improve the electrical conductivity of the electrode and the active material is responsible for the cell capacity and potential. Fig. 1 shows a schematic representation of an electrode and its main components.The main difference between the anode and the cathode is the active material. Anodes are typically based on silicon and/or carbonaceous materials such as graphite, graphene, or carbon nanotubes. For the cathode, lithium compounds are used, such as lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2, LCO), lithium nickel oxide (LiNiO2, LNO), lithium manganese dioxide (LiMnO2, LMO), lithium iron phosphates (LiFePO4, LFP), or lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (LiNixCoyAlzO2, x + y + z = 1, NCA), among others,,.The electrode fabrication process is critical in determining final battery performance as it affects morphology and interface properties, influencing in turn parameters such as porosity, pore size, tortuosity, and effective transport.
