“Brick-and-Mortar” Self-Assembly Synthesis of Electrode Architectures

Carbonaceous materials usually  have a better electronic conductivity than metal oxides for meeting requirements in high-rate capability applications.  However, both carbonaceous and metal-oxide materials suffer slow lithium diffusion rates within the corresponding electrode materials.  This deficiency limits the high-rate capability for a number of electrode materials.  Herein, we report an one-step “brick-and-mortar” self-assembly synthesis of carbon and oxide composites as anode materials for lithium ion batteries.  The objective of this work is to demonstrate that mesoporous carbons and oxides derived from soft-template synthesis not only entail a high storage capacity but also, most importantly, can be made through a  “brick and mortar” self-assembly synthesis to have a significantly enhanced electronic conductivity.  This enhanced electronic conductivity in 3D architectures is the key to providing high rate capability.

The main part of this work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under contract with UT-Battelle, LLC.