Oxocarbons Electrode Materials for Alkali Ion Batteries: Challenges, Strategies and Development

Abstract

Benefiting from the high theoretic capacity, structural designability, low cost, abundant resources and sustainability, oxocarbons materials have attracted extensive attention as a promising candidate to replace inorganic electrode materials for alkali ion batteries (AIBs). This review focuses on the indepth evaluation of the electrochemical properties of oxocarbons for lithium, sodium and potassium ion batteries. Further, we summarize the evolution, challenges and opportunities of oxocarbon compounds based on our current understanding. In addition, we identified two main aspects that limit their applications as electrode materials: 1) inferior conductivity and 2) fast capacity decay. Hence, in this review we also integrate different strategies to improve these two aspects, e. g., compositing with carbon, grafting conductive polymers, nanostructuring, optimizing electrolytes, designing interface, and selecting appropriate binders. This review can be useful to understand the practical application and commercial feasibility of such materials for different AIBs applications.

Assessing n‐type organic materials for lithium batteries: A techno‐economic review

“…The majority of the n-type materials investigated in literature involve the reversible reduction of the oxygen atom in a carbonyl group, [38][39][40] but a rich chemistry of nitrogencontaining molecules is also present, involving azo, imine, sulfonamide, and nitrile redox centers. [41][42][43] Materials belonging to the organosulfide class are mainly characterized by the reversible breaking and reformation of a disulfide bond, the same type of reaction present in lithium-sulfur batteries [44][45][46] ; notably, a few examples exploiting thiocarbonyl groups are also present.…”

Graphocrown—A Novel, Two-Dimensional Oxocarbon: A Theoretical Study

“…Another approach to developing materials is to use relatively simple oxocarbon molecules as a starting structure [23]. The enormous variability in structures/properties of the oxocarbon molecules opens up excellent prospects for the development of materials for electronics engineering that will surpass their existing analogues [24][25][26]. One of the first such materials was graphether, a new two-dimensional oxocarbon that could be synthesised by assembling dimethyl ether molecules [27].…”