Are Electrospun Carbon/Metal Oxide Composite Fibers Relevant Electrode Materials for Li-Ion Batteries?

Summary

Electrospinning can produce free-standing mats of carbon nanofibres with metal-oxide nanoparticles embedded in them, an attractive format for lithium-ion battery electrodes because it needs no binder or separate current collector. This study critically asks whether such carbon/metal-oxide composite fibres are genuinely useful anode materials. The authors electrospun polymer/metal-oxide precursor fibres, converted them into carbon/metal-oxide composites by thermal treatment, and characterised their structure, morphology and composition before testing them electrochemically as Li-ion anodes over repeated charge–discharge cycles. By weighing the measured capacity and cycling behaviour against the known drawbacks of metal-oxide anodes — irreversibility and large volume expansion — the work assesses both the real advantages and the limits of embedding metal oxides in electrospun carbon fibres.

Authors & Affiliations

• Fabiola Pantò

  DIIES, Università “Mediterranea” di Reggio Calabria, Italy
• Yafei Fan

  Institut für Chemie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
• Patrizia Frontera

  DICEAM, Università “Mediterranea” di Reggio Calabria & INSTM, Firenze, Italy
• Sara Stelitano

  Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria, Rende, Italy
• Enza Fazio

  MIFT, Università di Messina, Italy
• Salvatore Patanè

  MIFT, Università di Messina, Italy
• Marcello Marelli

  ISTM, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Milano, Italy
• Pierluigi Antonucci

  DICEAM, Università “Mediterranea” di Reggio Calabria & INSTM, Firenze, Italy
• Fortunato Neri

  MIFT, Università di Messina, Italy
• Nicola Pinna Corresponding

  Institut für Chemie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
• Saveria Santangelo Corresponding

  DICEAM, Università “Mediterranea” di Reggio Calabria, Italy

Topics

Materials

Linari Electrospinning Systems