Accordingly, the active material bulk may be a binder-free sintered body, and the active material film produced by cutting the sintered body may be a binder-free film containing no binder. Here, binder-free may be interpreted as containing no organic binder. Experimentally, binder-free may mean that when a weight reduction rate of an electrode is measured by heating the electrode up to 600° C. at a heating rate of 5° C./min under an inert atmosphere such as Ar, the weight reduction rate is within 2%, substantially within 1%, or more substantially within 0.5%, and still more substantially, the weight reduction does not occur within an error range.
Carbon derived from a carbon precursor, specifically pyrocarbon may serve as a conductive material for improving conductivity and serve to bind the particulate active material, and also function as an active material capable of lithium intercalation.