High capacity anode materials for lithium - ion batteries

Huge energy demand in the world has caused depletion in non - renewable energy sources, and global climate change due to the consumed fuel exhausts. Renewable energy sources are eco - friendly alternatives. Electrochemical energy storage systems (EESS) are useful tools to store the energy, which is harvested from the renewable sources. Lithium - ion batteries are currently the most popular EESS owing to their several advantages over other systems. However, for their use in high energy demanding applications like electric vehicles, new electrode materials with higher capacities are required. Here, we demonstrate two anode materials with high capacities, aluminum and silicon. We address problems regarding their commercial applications and offer solutions. To improve the properties of aluminum, we fabricate aluminum - copper thin films via sputtering, then we apply age hardening to the alloy. We observe that age hardening indeed increase stability of aluminum anodes. In the second work, we synthesize silicon nanoparticles via laser ablation, whose sizes are smaller than 20 nm, and embed them into carbon nanofibers (CNFs) via electrospinning. The electrochemical battery tests are conducted with only CNFs, CNFs with commercial Si nanoparticles and CNFs with laser ablased Si nanoparticles. The cyclic stability of these composites are observed along with their rate capabilities.