Metal Oxides and Oxysalts as Anode Materials for Li Ion Batteries

It is estimated that the world will need to double its energy supply by 2050. Nanotechnology has opened up new frontiers in materials science and engineering to meet this challenge by creating new materials, particularly carbon nanomaterials, for efficient energy conversion and storage. Comparing to conventional energy materials, carbon nanomaterials possess unique size-/surface-dependent (e.g., morphological, electrical, optical, and mechanical) properties useful for enhancing the energy-conversion and storage performances. During the past 25 years or so, therefore, considerable efforts have been made to utilize the unique properties of carbon nanomaterials, including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, as energy materials, and tremendous progress has been achieved in developing high-performance energy conversion (e.g., solar cells and fuel cells) and storage (e.g., supercapacitors and batteries) devices. This article reviews progress in the research and development of carbon nanomaterials during the past twenty years or so for advanced energy conversion and storage, along with some discussions on challenges and perspectives in this exciting field.

Carbon Nanomaterials for Advanced Energy Conversion and Storage

Olivine-structured LiFePO4 has been the focus of research in developing low cost, high performance cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. Various processes have been developed to synthesize LiFePO4 or C/LiFePO4 (carbon coating on LiFePO4), and some of them are being used to mass produce C/LiFePO4 at the commercial or pilot scale. Due to the low intrinsic electronic and ionic conductivities of LiFePO4, the decrease of particle size and the nano-layer of carbon coating on LiFePO4 particle surfaces are necessary to achieve a high electrochemical performance. Significant progress has been made in understanding and controlling phase purity, particle size and carbon coating of the C/LiFePO4 composite material in the past. However, there are still many challenges in achieving a high quality product with high consistency. In this review, we summarize some of the recent progress and advances based on selected reports from peer-reviewed journal publications. Several typical synthesis methods and the effect of carbon coating quality on the properties of C/LiFePO4 composite are reviewed. An insight into the future research and further development of C/LiFePO4 composite is also discussed.

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Understanding and recent development of carbon coating on LiFePO4 cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries

A review of application of carbon nanotubes for lithium ion battery anode material

Chemically prepared graphene was used to form highly active electrodes for use as a cathode in a Li battery. The first discharge process gave a flat discharge plateau at 2.20 V at a current density of 50 mA g−1, and a discharge capacity of 528 mA h g−1 was obtained with a cutoff voltage of 2.0 V.

Matthew Lindsay

Papers

Investigation of cobalt oxides as anode materials for Li-ion batteries

Graphite–Tin composites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Al-based anode materials for Li-ion batteries

Preparation and characterization of carbon nanotubes for energy storage

New approach for synthesis of carbon-mixed LiFePO4 cathode materials