Development of anode materials for rechargeable batteries

Abstract

Rechargeable batteries have attained enormous attention owing to the excessive greenhouse emissions and adverse effects on the environment caused by inconsiderate usage of fossil fuels. Therefore, there is an urgent need to switch over to renewable energy resources for our energy requirements. However, renewable energy resources exhibit temporal and geographic variations which in turn manufacture a mismatch between the availability and its peak demand. This calls for the development of efficient storage devices to bridge this existing gap and rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors are potential candidates for achieving these targets. Batteries are ubiquitous owing to their good power density and very high energy density, however often the nature of the anode limit the overall performance and safety of the device. In this thesis, various anode materials for rechargeable batteries are studied with a special emphasis on their charge storage mechanism and methodologies are proposed to address the problem encountered in their practical applications. Three major types of anode materials are explored in the present investigation based on their charge storage mechanism. These include intercalation type carbonaceous materials, conversion type ternary sulfides and alloying type Silicon (Si) anodes for rechargeable Li and Na ion batteries.