Si‐, Ge‐, Sn‐Based Anode Materials for Lithium‐Ion Batteries: From Structure Design to Electrochemical Performance

Abstract

non-renewable character of fossil fuels. [1,2] To solve this tough issue, sustainable renewable energy, such as wind energy and solar energy, has been studied for decades to gradually replace fossil fuels. [3,4] Unfortunately, the intermittency of renewable energy resources disturbs direct practical application. In this regard, rechargeable batteries play a crucial key role in storing and delivering the electric energy generated from renewable energy, which is essential to efficient utilization of wind or solar power. [5][6][7][8] Among the current commercial rechargeable batteries, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have shown great promise due to their high energy density and long cycle life, when applied to power portable electronic devices (including cellphones, laptops, etc.), showing great promise for application in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid EVs. [9][10][11][12] Nevertheless, the gravimetric and volumetric energy density of current commercial LIBs is still very low. It still remains a great challenge for LIBs to meet the requirements for applications in the fields of grid-energy storage and EVs. In addition, the cycle life of LIBs has been widely tested for application in small-scale energy storage at stable working states, while the electrochemical performance of LIBs applied in large-scale energy storage at unstable energy-conversion states (e.g., renewable energy) is still unknown, and needs further study. [13][14][15][16] The performance of LIBs, including the energy density, working life, and safety, is mainly determined by the primary functional components, particularly by the electrode materials. [17] The electrode materials of current commercial LIBs mainly consist of metal oxides or phosphate cathode materials (e.g., LiCoO 2 and LiFePO 4 ) and graphite-based anode materials. [18] However, the theoretical capacity of these graphite-based anode materials is only 372 mA h g −1 , severely reducing the energy density of LIBs. [19] To improve the capacity of anode materials, considerable attention has been devoted to alloy-type anode materials, owing to their high specific capacity and safety characteristics. [20,21] Among various alloy-type anode materials, those based on silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), and tin (Sn) show amazing capacities of 4200, 1625, and 994 mA h g −1 , respectively, holding great potential as anode materials for next-generation LIBs. [13,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] However, these anode materials As state-of-the-art rechargeable energy-storage devices, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely applied in various areas, such as storage of electrical energy converted from renewable energy and powering portable electronic devices and electric vehicles (EVs). Nevertheless, the energy density and working life of current commercial LIBs cannot satisfy the rapid development of these applications. It is urgently required that the electrochemical performance of LIBs, which is mainly determined by the electroactive electrode materials, is improved. However, commercial graphite-based ...

Synchrotron‐Based X‐ray Absorption Fine Structures, X‐ray Diffraction, and X‐ray Microscopy Techniques Applied in the Study of Lithium Secondary Batteries

“…Alloy-type anode materials for LIBs have attracted research attention, but many of these materials suffer from huge volume changes during the lithiation/delithiation process. [194] To improve the cyclability of these anode materials, there is an urgent need to investigate microstructural changes. Recently, morphological variations in Sn and Ge -based anode materials have been investigated using TXM.…”

Self‐Healing Materials for Next‐Generation Energy Harvesting and Storage Devices

“…Energy Mater. 2017, 7,1700890 has been devoted to exploiting novel electrode materials, for example metallic alloy, [6] silicon and its composites, [131,132] that can deliver a higher theoretical capacities than that of commercial graphite anodes. However, the insufficient cycle life of these electrodes due to mechanical micro-cracks generated by structural changes during cycling significantly limits the commercialization of these high capacity electrodes in Li-ion batteries.…”

“…[1][2][3][4] To date, researchers have devoted significant efforts to explore new materials [2,5,6] and rationally designed structures [2,5] to improve the capacity and efficiencies of such energy devices. Less attention, however, has been paid to enhance the working life or the durability of these devices.…”

Flexible Na batteries

“…During the past decade, various electrode materials have been discovered and investigated for use in Na batteries, as shown in Figure 1B,C, including cathode materials [12][13][14][15] : layered oxides, 16 polyanionic compounds, 17 Prussian blue analogues, 18 sulfur and gas (O 2 and CO 2 ) etc, anodes, 14,19 carbon-based materials, 20,21 titanium-based materials, 22,23 alloy materials, 24 chalcogen-based materials, 19,25,26 organic materials, 19,25,26 Na metal anodes, 27 and so forth. During the past decade, various electrode materials have been discovered and investigated for use in Na batteries, as shown in Figure 1B,C, including cathode materials [12][13][14][15] : layered oxides, 16 polyanionic compounds, 17 Prussian blue analogues, 18 sulfur and gas (O 2 and CO 2 ) etc, anodes, 14,19 carbon-based materials, 20,21 titanium-based materials, 22,23 alloy materials, 24 chalcogen-based materials, 19,25,26 organic materials, 19,25,26 Na metal anodes, 27<...>…”