Metal Oxide/Reduced Graphene Oxide Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs) have completely conquered the portable electronic devices market due to their high energy density and cycle life. However, in order to make them suitable for grid-scale or long-range automotive applications, it is necessary to find new materials with higher intrinsic energy density than the state-of-the-art. Metal oxides (MOs) have received considerable attention in recent years as a replacement for graphite at the anode. MOs can provide on average a theoretical capacity around double that of graphite (ca. 700 mAh/g versus 372 mAh/g) and recent studies have shown that acceptable capacity retention can be achieved. Though morphology certainly plays a role in the performance of MO anodes, conductivity is likely the determining factor that dictates material cycleability. Replacement of traditional carbon additives with non-dilutive, high conductive carbons has the potential to yield very high capacity electrodes with excellent capacity retention.