Battery materials

Batteries have become a ubiquitous part of life thanks to their ability to power portable electronic devices from cell phones and laptops to electric vehicles. Batteries also have the potential to play an essential role in enabling a greener transportation industry and large scale use of intermittent renewable energy such as solar and wind. This chapter is focused on the solid-state materials chemistry that enables energy storage in battery systems. The concepts and terminology required to understand the content are explained in the first section. The chapter briefly discusses early battery technology including high temperature batteries, alkaline batteries, and Pb-Acid batteries. We then discuss more contemporary chemistry including the significant conceptual discoveries, such as intercalation chemistry, that led to the successful commercialization of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). A comparative review of a variety of significant intercalation cathode and anode materials is presented, with emphasis on material structure and how it affects their electrochemical properties. In each section a brief history of each material, as well as a detailed description of its structure, advantageous properties, drawbacks, and current electrochemical research directions on similar materials is provided. This chapter also covers next-generation battery chemistry including Li-rich cathode materials, electrodes based on conversion chemistry, such as S 8 or O 2 cathodes, and Li and Si anodes. The section concludes with a discussion of development of battery materials for next-generation systems based on other monovalent working ions, Na + and K + , and multivalent working ions, Mg 2+ , Zn 2+ , and Ca 2+ .