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Akumaailmas leiutatakse:
Nanomaterials Improve Both the Anode and Cathode of Li-ion Batteries

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have been the subject of intense research aimed at manufacturing them with nanomaterials that will let them better meet the demands of everything from laptops and mobile devices to all-electric vehicles (EVs).

A large portion of the research has been focused on developing nanomaterials for the anode of the Li-ion that will replace graphite. But there has definitely been a shift toward the cathode, as evidenced by research over the last few years.

Now a research team out of the University of Southern California (USC) has taken a novel approach to the improvement of Li-ion batteries with nanomaterials: tackling both the cathode and the anode simultaneously.

For the anode, the USC researchers developed an inexpensive method for producing porous silicon nanoparticles through ball milling and stain etching. For the cathode, they developed a method of coating sulfur powder with graphene oxide to improve performance.

Reports detailing the research projects were published in the journal Nano Letters, but in separate papers. The work on the silicon anode ("Large-Scale Fabrication, 3D Tomography, and Lithium-Ion Battery Application of Porous Silicon") was originally published online in November; details about the work on the cathode ("Solution Ionic Strength Engineering As a Generic Strategy to Coat Graphene Oxide (GO) on Various Functional Particles and Its Application in High-Performance Lithium–Sulfur (Li–S) Batteries") made the journal in December.

The silicon anode the research team developed demonstrated a stable capacity above 1100 milliamp-hours per gram (mAh/g) for 600 extended cycles, making it nearly three times as powerful and durable as a typical commercial anode. Meanwhile, the team's graphene oxide coating improved the sulfur cathode's capacity to 800 mAh/g for 1000 charge-discharge cycles, which is more than five times the capacity of commercial cathodes.

While the capacity numbers are good, the cycle numbers appear low—at least compared to the 6000 cycles reported for nanostructured silicon in anodes just two years ago. And early last year, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory were able to achieve a specific anode capacity of 1250 mAh/g and maintain it for 5000 charge-discharge cycles.

Terve tekst lingil:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/materials/nanomaterials-improve-both-the-anode-and-cathode-of-liion-batteries