What Are The Li-ion Battery Anode Materials?

The biggest difference between lithium-ion batteries and secondary lithium batteries is that the former uses Li-embedded compounds 

as negative electrode materials, while the latter uses lithium metal. Therefore, the research of lithium-ion batteries is mainly focused on 

the development of negative lithium-embedded compounds.

As a negative electrode material for lithium-ion batteries, the following conditions must be met:

First, low electrochemical equivalent. 

Secondly, the deembedding process of lithium ions is easy and reversible. 

Third, it has a large lithium ion diffusion coefficient. Fourth, it has good electronic conductivity. 

Finally, it has good thermal stability and compatibility with electrolytes in order to make usable electrode materials.

At present, the negative electrode materials of lithium-ion batteries are mainly divided into carbon materials and non-carbon materials. 

The negative electrode materials that have been actually applied to lithium-ion batteries are mainly carbon materials, including artificial 

graphite, natural graphite, mesophase carbon microspheres (MCMB), petroleum coke, carbon fiber, pyrolytic resin carbon, etc. In 

addition, people are also actively researching and developing non-carbon anode materials.

Carbon anode materials can be divided into two categories: easy graphitized carbon and hard graphitized carbon. The easy graphitized 

carbons mainly include carbon fiber, carbon microspheres and petroleum coke. Among them, the specific capacity of petroleum coke is 

low, and the circulation performance is poor. However, through modification treatment, the specific capacity of petroleum coke can be 

increased to 250mAh/g, and it has good cycling performance. The hard graphitized carbon mainly includes resin carbon, organic 

polymer pyrolytic carbon and carbon black.

Compared with non-graphitized carbon materials, graphite has better electrical conductivity and high crystallinity, has a good layered 

structure, and is more suitable for the lithium ion removal/insertion process, forming lithium-graphite interlayer insertion compounds.

Graphite materials are mainly divided into two categories: artificial graphite and natural graphite. Artificial graphite is produced by the 

high temperature graphitization of readily graphitized carbon. Artificial graphite materials mainly include graphitized mesophase 

carbon microspheres, graphite fibers and other graphitized carbon materials.

In addition to carbon materials, there are some non-carbon materials that can be used as negative electrode materials for lithium-ion 

batteries. For example, Li-containing transition metal nitrides such as Li3-xCoxN and Li7MnN4. These materials have high specific 

capacity and good cycle performance, and can be paired with suitable cathode materials to form batteries. In addition, sulfide materials 

such as TiS2 and MoS2 can also be used as negative electrode materials and paired with 4V positive electrode materials to form batteries.

In general, the negative electrode materials of lithium-ion batteries mainly include carbon materials and non-carbon materials. Carbon 

materials have good electrical conductivity and structural properties, and natural graphite and artificial graphite are the main graphite 

materials. Non-carbon materials such as transition metal nitrides and sulfides also have potential applications. The research and 

development of these anode materials will provide important support for the performance improvement and application expansion of 

lithium-ion batteries.