Battery Materials
With increasing demands for clean energy such as solar, hydro and wind powers, energy storage plays a crucial part in the storage, distribution and delivery of such energies. While compared to other battery technologies such as nickel-type batteries and lead acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have quickly risen to become the "battery of choice" for hybrid electric and all-electric vehicles.
In a typical LIB, graphitic carbon acts as an anode and a lithium-based layered metal oxide acts as a cathode separated by an insulating separator that is electrolyte-permeable. While anode materials are typically graphite, cathode materials include the benchmark materials lithium cobalt oxides (LiCoO2), lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4), lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2).
