Engineering Graphitic Structure Via Molten Salt Assisted Low Temperature Electrocatalytic Graphitization for High Capacity Anode Application

Abstract

Graphite, a successfully commercialized anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), is conventionally synthesized via the Acheson process at ~3000 °C. Because of sluggish lithium diffusion kinetics, synthetic graphite exhibits abysmal electrochemical performance under fast-charging conditions, which is an essential prerequisite for boosting electric mobility. Herein, we demonstrated engineering the graphitic structure via molten salt assisted electrocatalytic graphitization of amorphous carbon feedstocks to afford nano-flake graphite with tunable interlayer spacing to accelerate lithium diffusion kinetics at ~800-850 °C. The beauty of our strategy for engineering the graphitic structure is that it results in high-performing nano- flake graphite at much lower temperature with a short synthesis time, resulting in a significant increase in energy savings. The resulting graphite with unique nanoarchitecture exhibits outstanding electrochemical performance at fast charging conditions and outscored state of the art’s commercial graphite. The results demonstrated that such a strategy could enhance the energy density of fast-charging batteries that could boost electromobility.