Preparation of Zinc Oxide/Graphite Composite Using Solid-State Method as an Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Battery

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries using zinc oxide (ZnO) as anode material had a high theoretical capacity of about 987 mAh/g. Unfortunately, ZnO capacity can drop below 200 mAh/g after only a few cycles. For that reason, graphite was added in this study due to its stable theoretical capacity of around 348-374 mAh/g to maintain the stability of lithium-ion battery capacity. Zinc oxide/graphite (ZnO/Graphite) was prepared using a solid-state method, in which ZnO and graphite were mortared until homogeneous with the mass ratio of (2:1), (1:1), and (1:2). The SEM images of all samples showed the agglomerate morphology between ZnO and graphite which affect the results of the battery performance test. The final result of the ZnO/Graphite anode can be considered a continuous anode material due to the stable cycle performance obtained in the range of 219.72–371.27 mAh/g with a decreased value of 40% after 55 cycles.

Photoluminescence and enhanced photocatalytic activity of mechanically activated graphite-zinc oxide composites

“…The photocatalytic activity was best seen for samples ground for 2 h. Recent work [16] has shown that decreasing the size of zinc oxide particles enhances the photodegradation of rhodamine-B because of the increased surface area of the zinc oxide particles. With grinding, more zinc oxide particles adhere to the graphite surface and form agglomerates.…”

“…Most of the mentioned techniques make use of high temperatures and pass through a chemical solution stage. A recent work [16] utilized ground graphite/ZnO composites for energy storage applications. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other literature on ground graphite/ZnO composites for photocatalytic applications.…”