Nanowire Electrodes for Advanced Lithium Batteries

Lei Huang,Qiulong Wei,Liqiang Mai,Ruimin Sun

doi:10.3389/fenrg.2014.00043

Abstract

Since the commercialization of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) in the past two decades, rechargeable LIBs have become widespread power sources for portable devices used in daily life. However, current demands require higher energy density and power density of batteries. The electrochemical energy storage performance of LIBs could be improved by applying nanomaterial electrodes, but their fast capacity fading is still one of the key limitations and the mechanism needs to be clearly understood. Single nanowire electrode devices are considered as a versatile platform for in situ probing the direct relationship between electrical transport, structure change, and other properties of the single nanowire electrode along with the charge/discharge process. The results indicate the conductivity decrease of the nanowire electrode and the structural disorder/destruction during electrochemical reactions which limit the cycling performance of LIBs. Based on the in situ observations, some feasible structure architecture strategies, including prelithiation, coaxial structure, nanowire arrays and hierarchical structure architecture, are proposed and utilized to restrain the conductivity decrease and structural disorder/destruction. Further, the applications of nanowire electrodes in some “beyond Li-ion” batteries, such as Li-S and Li-air battery, are also described.

Highlights

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs), commercialized by Sony since 1991, are the most widely used electrochemical energy storage devices (Goodenough and Park, 2013; Goodenough, 2014)
The LIBs operate following a “rock chair” concept, in which Li-ions are extracted from the anode, diffuse through the electrolyte and intercalate into the cathode, while the discharging process is on the contrary (Tarascon and Armand, 2001; Vu et al, 2012)
The reversible capacity of LIBs is limited to the number of the exchanged ions/electrons and the material structure stability during intercalation/de-intercalation

Summary

Nanowire electrodes for advanced lithium batteries

State Key Laboratory of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China. Current demands require higher energy density and power density of batteries. The electrochemical energy storage performance of LIBs could be improved by applying nanomaterial electrodes, but their fast capacity fading is still one of the key limitations and the mechanism need to be clearly understood. Single nanowire electrode devices are considered as a versatile platform for in situ probing the direct relationship between electrical transport, structure change, and other properties of the single nanowire electrode along with the charge/discharge process.The results indicate that the conductivity decrease of the nanowire electrode and the structural disorder/destruction during electrochemical reaction limit the cycling performance of LIBs. Based on the in situ observations, some feasible optimization strategies, including prelithiation, coaxial structure, nanowire arrays, and hierarchical structure architecture, are proposed and utilized to restrain the conductivity decrease and structural disorder/destruction.

INTRODUCTION

Anode Anode Anode

Findings

CONCLUSION