Li-ion batteries are becoming increasingly prolific to the point that there is concern that there is not enough of the critical elements that are significant fractions of the active material components to support massive changeover in both the transportation and electric grid systems.  Thus, research is now focused on new materials that do not require cobalt, nickel, or graphite.  These new materials behave quite differently in a cell than their predecessors. They may demonstrate significantly less electronic or ionic conductivity or significantly more expansion and contraction with cycling.  These inherent differences of the new materials require differences in material size during their synthesis and differences in the processing resulting in highly functional electrodes.  The purpose of this talk is to go over the requirements of the inactives (carbon and binder) and then show how best to combine them and at what ratio to lead to high performing electrodes, with minimal inactives that lead to thick, high-loading electrodes without defects.