{
  "abstract": "Dry coating is an emerging, scalable alternative to traditional slurry coating for manufacturing lithium-ion battery electrodes. It offers significant energy savings, eliminates the need for toxic solvents, and is consequently often regarded as an environmentally more benign process. Dry coating exploits the fibrillating properties of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), substituting the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) binder employed in slurry coating. As replacing slurry coating with dry coating involves different production processes and materials, a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) study was performed for an accurate comparison of the environmental impacts. The results of our LCA show that dry coating has the potential to reduce environmental impacts across all assessed impact categories except for the ozone depletion potential, which increases by a factor of 1.8 when PVDF is replaced by an equal mass of PTFE. For LiNi 0.8 Mn 0.1 Co 0.1 O₂ (NMC811) cathodes, dry coating typically enables a reduction in binder content by a factor of two, which offsets the higher ozone depletion potential of PTFE with respect to PVDF and results in a comparable impact at cell level. For LiFePO 4 (LFP) cathodes and graphite anodes, state-of-the-art processing relies on aqueous, non-fluorinated binders, typically a combination of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). Dry coating therefore introduces PTFE into a process that is currently free of fluorinated materials, lowering CO 2 emissions but increasing ozone depleting emissions. We also highlight knowledge and data gaps associated with the polymerization of PVDF and PTFE, which currently prevent a robust comparison of toxicity-related impact categories, and discuss the potential of non-fluorinated binders for dry coating. Overall, our study provides a foundation for understanding environmental benefits, trade-offs, and remaining data gaps identified for dry coating technologies, supporting informed decisions on their future development and scalable implementation in lithium-ion battery manufacturing.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Technology & Society Laboratory, Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 9014",
    "Materials for Energy Conversion, Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129, Dübendorf, Switzerland, 8600",
    "HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Rue de l'Industrie 23, Sion, 1950",
    "Laboratory for Air Pollution/Environmental Technology, Empa-Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129, Dübendorf, 8600",
    "Department of Green Technology & Danish Institute for Advanced Study (DIAS), University of Southern Denmark, Campusvej 55, Odense, 5230",
    "Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, Zurich, 8007",
    "School of Engineering, Institute of Materials, EPFL, Station 12, Lausanne, 1015"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 8,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Martina Serra"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Edouard Quérel"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Eleonora Crenna"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Stefan Reimann"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Martin K. Vollmer"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Zhanyun Wang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Corsin Battaglia"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Roland Hischier"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqyndyg94sar6.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15008600/v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "cqyndyg94sar6",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008600/v1",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2305|Environmental Impact and Sustainability"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7212144221",
  "pdf_url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/pdf/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008600/v1",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": "American Chemical Society (ACS)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqyndyg94sar6.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
      "native_id": "10.26434/chemrxiv.15008600",
      "source": "chemrxiv",
      "url": "https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008600/v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2305|Environmental Impact and Sustainability",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Environmental benefits and trade-offs of dry coating for battery electrode production",
  "title_text": "Environmental benefits and trade-offs of dry coating for battery electrode production",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:17:19Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqyndyg94sar6",
  "venue": "ChemRxiv",
  "versions": []
}