This type of batteries is commonly referred to as “structural batteries”. Two general methods have been explored to develop structural batteries: (1) integrating batteries with light and strong external reinforcements, and (2) introducing multifunctional materials as battery components to make energy storage devices themselves structurally robust.
Although not intentionally designed for structural batteries, some of them showed potential applications in structural energy storage.
This review presents a new insight by summarizing the advances in structure and property optimizations of battery electrode materials for high-efficiency energy storage. In-depth understanding, efficient optimization strategies, and advanced techniques on electrode materials are also highlighted.
The material development can help enhance the intrinsic mechanical properties of batteries for structural applications but require careful designs so that electrochemical performance is not compromised. In this review, we target to provide a comprehensive summary of recent developments in structural batteries and our perspectives.
However, the potential gain in energy density of externally reinforced structural batteries is limited by the additional mass of reinforcement and its mechanical properties, whereas integrated multifunctional structural components inside the battery ideally do not add extra weight to it.
Table 1 provides a summary of different strategies for structural batteries and their performance achievements. Table 1. Summary of strategies for structural batteries and performance achievements. Young’s modulus (E), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), flexural modulus (E f), flexural strength (σ f), flexural rigidity (D).