Investigation of High Energy Density Anode Materials Based on Sio-Sncoc in Full Cell Configuration

State-of-the-art lithium ion battery technology is being developed for large scale applications such as electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). For this purpose, lithium ion batteries must have long term cycling performance with high capacity. The graphite which is currently used as an anode material has a capacity of about 372 mAhg^-1 where lithium forms graphite intercalation compounds LiC₆ with excellent reversibility. Ongoing research efforts have focused on utilizing various materials (oxides, alloys, tin, silicon) to increase battery capacity, cycle life, and charge-discharge rates. Attention has been recently given to the potential of metal oxide anodes for lithium-ion batteries because of their low price and their high theoretical capacities (more than 600 mAhg^-1). However, these anode materials suffer from their poor cycleability due to the volume expansion of the lithiated material. New materials based on the mixture of M_aO_b oxides (M: Si, Sn, Mo, Ge) and Sn_xCo_yC_z alloys were prepared and tested as anodes for lithium batteries. In the M_aO_b - Sn_xCo_yC_z composite, Sn_xCo_yC_z will play the role of buffer for M_aO_b anode and improve its cyleability and M_aO_b will provide more capacity.  In full cell configuration, this study will focus on the cheapest SiO- Sn_xCo_yC_z system. We used ultra-high energy ball milling (UHEM) methods to prepare SiO-Sn₃₀Co₃₀C₄₀ anode materials. This anode material is tested in full cell configuration using the 5V LiNi_0.5Mn_1.5O₄ spinel, NMC and ANL-NMC materials.  The results of these investigations will be presented.

The submitted abstract has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.