1.1 Introduction
How to get and use energies very efficiently is the mainstream research topic in terms of the basic sciences/advanced engineering and potential applications. The various theoretical models [1,2,3,4 and 5] and experimental syntheses [6,7,8,9,10 and 11] have been proposed to fully present the essential properties, outstanding functionalities, and commercialized products of green energy materials. The LIBs principally consist of cathode, electrolyte, and anode materials, in which the second systems might be either in solid [12] or in liquid states [13,14]. The numerical simulations, the first-principles calculations [15], neural network, and molecular dynamics [16] are frequently utilized to investigate their rich and unique properties, such as the growth processes, optimal geometric structures within large unit cells, electronic energy spectra, van Hove singularities in density of states, orbital hybridizations of chemical bonds, magnetic configurations, and special optical absorption spectra. The close combinations of core components in batteries are required to display the high-performance characteristics: low cost, lightweight, high safety, short charging time, long operation time, controllable temperature, and wide voltage range.
Up to now, there exist a lot of well-established products that cover the battery-driven cell phones and electric vehicles (EVs), the solar cell companies, the hydrogen-based cars, the water-induced electric power, the wind turbines, and so on. By the delicate numerical calculations, successful syntheses, detailed analysis, and well-behaved designs, this book thoroughly explores the diversified physical, chemical, and material phenomena of fundamental properties and the unusual functionalities in LIBs [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11], Si nanowire-based solar cells [17], and perovskite solar cells [18]. Furthermore, the relations between the theoretical predictions and the high-resolution measurements are fully discussed. It provides very useful information about science bases, integrated engineering, and real applications.
Table 1.1 provides the diversified materials of anode, cathode, and electrolyte. The anode materials require the large capability of lithium intercalation/adsorption, high efficiency of charge/discharge, excellent cyclability, low reactivity against electrolyte, fast reaction rate, low cost, environmental-friendly, and nontoxic [19,20,21,22 and 23]. Graphite, which is one of the primary carbon materials, can serve as anode of Li+-ion-based batteries and is predominantly used in commercial products [23,24 and 25]. Lithium ions are electrochemically intercalated into the space between the graphitic sheets during the charging process and de-intercalated in the discharging process. A practical reversible capacity is greater than 360 mAh g−1 (theoretically at 372 mAh g−1) with the high discharge/charge efficiency [26,27 and 28]. However, graphite has a huge backward in volume expansion. There are new carbon materials, such as carbon nanofibers (CNF) [33,34 and 35] and carbon nanotubes (CNT) [31,32], where the single-walled CNTs are expected to exhibit reversible capacities about 300–600 mAh g−1 [32]. Besides the above materials, Li4Ti5O12 is known as a potential anode material for the next-generation LIBs [39,40 and 41]. In the current work, Li4Ti5O12 has been focused on the rich and unique essential properties with highly nonuniform environments, clearly revealing the thermodynamic stability, high cycle life performance, and safety, compared to other anode material candidates. The other materials are also available in anode electrode, e.g., TiO2 [19,20,21 and 22], patterned Si [29], Si film [30], Si nanowires [36,37], Si nanotubes [38], MoO3 [42], SnO2 [43], ZnO [44], Fe3O4/carbon foam [45], MnO [46], Co3O4 [47], GaSx [48,49], and MoS2 [50].
TABLE 1.1
Various Anodes, Electrolytes, and Cathodes in Li-Ion-Based Batteries | Materials | References |
Anode | TiO2 | [19,20,21 and 22] |
Graphite | [23,24,25,26,27 and 28] |
Patterned Si | [29] |
Si film | [30] |
Carbon nanotubes | [31,32] |
Carbon nanofibers | [33,34 and 35] |
Si nanowires | [36,37] |
Si nanotubes | [38] |
Li4Ti5O12 | [39,40 and 41] |
MoO3 | [42] |
SnO2 | [43] |
ZnO | [44] |
Fe3O4/carbon foam | [45] |
MnO | [46] |
Co3O4 | [47] |
GaSx | [48,49] |
MoS2 | [50] |
Cathode | V2O5 | [53,54] |
LiCoO2 | [55,56] |
Nano-LiCoO2 | [57] |
LiMn2O4 | [58] |
Li[Li0.20Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13]O2 | [59] |
LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 | [60,61] |
LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 | [62,63] |
0.5Li2MnO3·0.5LiNi0.375Mn0.375Co0.25O2 | [64] |
Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 | [65] |
LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 | [66] |
FePO4 | [67] |
LiFe(Co/Ni)PO4 | [68] |
Solid-state electrolyte | Garnet (Li7La3Zr2O12) | [71] |
Perovskite (Li3xLa2/3−xTiO3) | [72] |
Na super-ionic conductor (NASICON) | [73] |
LISICON | [74] |
(LiMIV 2 (PO4)3 (MIV = Ti, Zr, Ge, and Hf) | [75] |
LiAlOx | [76,77] |
Li3PO4 | [78] |
Lithium silicate | [79] |
Li (Ta/Nb)O3 | [80,81] |
Li3N | [82] |
LiSiAlO2 | [83] |
Sulfide (Li4GeS4, Li10GeP2S12, Li2S-P2S5 | [84] |
Argyrodite (Li6PS5X (X = Cl, Br, I)) | [85] |
Anti-perovskite (Li3OX (X = Cl, Br, I)) | [86] |
LiSi/Ge/SnO | [87,88] |
The most common cathode materials are LiCoO2 [55,56], Li-Mn-O [58], LiFePO4 [68], and lithium-layered metal oxides, mainly owing t...