Electrode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries

Miniaturization in electronics and vapid advances in portable devices demand lightweight, compact, high-energy density batteries. Lithium batteries offer several advantages such as higher cell voltage, higher energy density, and longer shelf life as compared to other rechargeable systems. Although the rocking-chair concept of utilizing insertion compounds as both cathode and anode hosts has made the rechargeable lithium batteries a commercial reality, cost and environmental considerations require the development of inexpensive electrode hosts stich as manganese oxides for consumer applications. Innovative synthesis and processing procedures (including low-temperature, solution-based synthesis approaches to obtain amorphous and nanocrystalline oxide electrode hosts) play a key role in developing ne io as well as better-performing known electrode materials.