The effect of turbostratic disorder on the staging transitions in lithium intercalated graphite

Abstract

Tubostratic disorder in graphitic carbons affects the staged phases which form during lithium intercalation. This is because lithium does not occupy galleries between turbostratically stacked adjacent layers (blocked galleries) leading to elimination of the higher stages when the probability, P, for turbostratic disorder becomes large. Using electrochemical methods and in situ X-ray diffraction, we study the staging phase diagram of Li x C 6 as a function of P for soft carbons heated above 2200 °C. We find that materials with P > 0.3 only show stage-1 and stage-2 phases, while those with P < 0.25 show evidence for stages up to stage 4.