Lithium-ion batteries, spurred by the growth in mobile phone, tablet, and laptop computer markets, have been pushed to achieve increasingly higher energy densities, which are directly related to the number of hours a battery can operate.
Lithium-ion batteries have been extensively applied in portable electronic devices and will play a crucial role in powering electric vehicles and smart power grids.
The theoretical specific energy of Li-S batteries and Li-O 2 batteries are 2567 and 3505 Wh kg −1, which indicates that they leap forward in that ranging from Li-ion batteries to lithium–sulfur batteries and lithium–air batteries.
The energy density of the traditional lithium-ion battery technology is now close to the bottleneck, and there is limited room for further optimization. Now scientists are working on designing new types of batteries with high energy storage and long life span. In the automotive industry, the battery ultimately determines the life of vehicles.
What actually limits the energy density of lithium-ion batteries? The chemical systems behind are the main reasons. Cathode and anode electrodes are where chemical reactions occur. The energy density of a single battery depends mainly on the breakthrough of the chemical system.
On account of major bottlenecks of the power lithium-ion battery, authors come up with the concept of integrated battery systems, which will be a promising future for high-energy lithium-ion batteries to improve energy density and alleviate anxiety of electric vehicles.