Carbon Materials in Lithium-Ion Batteries
Abstract
The importance of carbons in secondary lithium batteries considerably increased when Sony introduced the first lithium-ion battery to the market in 1991. Up to that point, metallic lithium was used as the negative electrode in various types of lithium battery systems. The most attractive feature of metallic lithium is the high specific charge capacity of 3.86 Ah g<sup>−1</sup> combined with a very negative electrode potential of about −3.0 V vs. NHE. However, the coulombic efficiency of the repeated anodic dissolution and cathodic deposition of lithium is normally well below 100% so that at least a threefold lithium excess is required for an acceptable cycle life of rechargeable lithium cells. Other drawbacks of the metallic lithium electrode are the grave changes of both volume and morphology during cycling, resulting in a limited cycle life due to a crumbling of the electrode into electrically isolated, chemically unstable metal particles, as well as the dendrite formation on the electrode during the cathodic lithium deposition. [...]