Inorganic Battery Materials

Silicon‐Based Anodes for Advanced Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Junhua Song, Xiaolin Li and Ji‐Guang Zhang

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA

1. 1 Introduction
2. 2 Nanostructure Design
3. 3 Binder Effect
4. 4 Electrolyte Optimization and Interphase Engineering
5. 5 Practical Perspectives of S‐Based Anodes in Full Cells
6. 6 Challenges and Outlook
7. 7 Abbreviations and Acronyms
8. 8 References

1 Introduction

Since the commercial introduction of lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) in 1990s by Sony Corporation, the quest for high energy density rechargeable batteries has become burgeoningly active.(1–3) In the past decades, the energy density has taken a threefold increment from the first‐generation LIB (80 Wh kg⁻¹) to today's 240 Wh kg⁻¹.(4) The advancement of battery performance has been driven by several technical breakthroughs, such as the discovery of layered transition‐metal oxide cathode material, LiCoO₂, in the 1980s by John Goodenough,(5,6) and using carbonaceous anode materials as Li‐ion hosts. With the continuous efforts on the optimization of materials processing, improvements on the inactive components (including electrolyte, separator and binder, conductive additive, and current collector) and engineering progress in manufacturing, the ceiling of Li‐ion's energy density is approaching its theoretical limits with the general concept of insertion anode and cathode pair. While technological achievements play a key role in boosting the LIBs' performance, the consumer demands, ...