Recently, metal phosphides have been investigated as potential anode materials because of higher specific capacity compared with those of carbonaceous materials. However, the rapid capacity fade upon cycling leads to poor durability and short cycle life, which cannot meet the need of lithium-ion batteries with high energy density. Herein, we report a layer-structured GeP3/C nanocomposite anode material with high performance prepared by a facial and large-scale ball milling method via in-situ mechanical reaction. The P-O-C bonds are formed in the composite, leading to close contact between GeP3 and carbon. As a result, the GeP3/C anode displays excellent lithium storage performance with a high reversible capacity up to 1109 mA h g−1 after 130 cycles at a current density of 0.1 A g−1. Even at high current densities of 2 and 5 A g−1, the reversible capacities are still as high as 590 and 425 mA h g−1, respectively. This suggests that the GeP3/C composite is promising to achieve high-energy lithium-ion batteries and the mechanical milling is an efficient method to fabricate such composite electrode materials especially for large-scale application.

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Composite LiFe 0.4 Mn 0.6 PO 4 /C microspheres are considered advanced cathode materials for electric vehicles and other high-energy density applications due to their advantages of high energy density and excellent cycling stability. LiFe 0.4 Mn 0.6 PO 4 /C microspheres have been produced using a double carbon coating process employing traditional industrial techniques (ball milling, spray-drying and annealing). The obtained LiFe 0.4 Mn 0.6 PO 4 microspheres exhibit a high discharge capacity of around 166 mA h g À1 at 0.1 C and excellent rate capabilities of 132, 103, and 72 mA h g À1 at 5, 10, and 20 C, respectively. A reversible capacity of about 152 mA h g À1 after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 C indicates an outstanding cycling stability. The excellent electrochemical performance is attributed to the micrometer-sized spheres of double carbon-coated LiFe 0.4 Mn 0.6 PO 4 nanoparticles with improved electric conductivity and higher Li ion diffusion coefficients, ensuring full redox reactions of all nanoparticles. The results show that the advanced high-energy density cathode materials can be produced using existing industry techniques.