In 2017, lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO 4) was the most extensively utilized cathode electrode material for lithium ion batteries due to its high safety, relatively low cost, high cycle performance, and flat voltage profile.
This mini-review discusses the recent trends in electrode materials for Li-ion batteries. Elemental doping and coatings have modified many of the commonly used electrode materials, which are used either as anode or cathode materials. This has led to the high diffusivity of Li ions, ionic mobility and conductivity apart from specific capacity.
Positive electrodes for Li-ion and lithium batteries (also termed “cathodes”) have been under intense scrutiny since the advent of the Li-ion cell in 1991. This is especially true in the past decade.
Lithium metal was used as a negative electrode in LiClO 4, LiBF 4, LiBr, LiI, or LiAlCl 4 dissolved in organic solvents. Positive-electrode materials were found by trial-and-error investigations of organic and inorganic materials in the 1960s.
It is an ideal insertion material for long-life lithium-ion batteries, with about 175 mAh g −1 of rechargeable capacity and extremely flat operating voltage of 1.55 V versus lithium. LiFePO 4 in Fig. 3 (d) is thermally quite stable even when all of lithium ions are extracted from it .
In particular, the recent trends on material researches for advanced lithium-ion batteries, such as layered lithium manganese oxides, lithium transition metal phosphates, and lithium nickel manganese oxides with or without cobalt, are described.