The lithium ion battery industry is increasingly looking for materials with a higher capacity for lithium storage than the currently used graphite anodes, for use in the next generation of more powerful rechargeable batteries. Tin is one of the best solutions available thanks to its high theoretical capacity and other technical benefits. However, tin anodes, similar to other metallic materials, suffer from high volume changes during battery cycling, leading to premature degradation of the anode. In order to overcome this problem different architectures of Sn-based composites and intermetallics have been evaluated and some of them have shown promising results. Progress towards the development of Sn-based anodes for next generation Li-ion batteries is summarized in this paper. The possibility of their usage in the battery market is also briefly discussed. |
full paper (pdf, 1488 Kb)