NEGATIVE ELECTRODE FOR LITHIUM SECONDARY BATTERY AND LITHIUM SECONDARY BATTERY COMPRISING THE SAME

A negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery including a negative electrode active material layer. The negative electrode active material layer is formed by steps of coating a negative electrode mixture slurry including spheroidized natural graphite particles as a negative electrode active material on at least one surface of a negative electrode current collector, followed by drying and pressing the negative electrode mixture slurry on the at least one surface of the negative electrode current collector. The spheroidized natural graphite particles include a plurality of pores. The negative electrode active material layer has a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) specific surface area of the negative electrode active material layer after the pressing is larger than a BET specific surface area of the negative electrode active material layer before pressing. A difference in the BET specific surface area before and after pressing ranges from 0.9 m/g to 1.2 m/g.