Preparation and characterization of anode materials using expanded graphite/pitch composite for high-power Li-ion secondary batteries

Expanded graphite was prepared by the intercalation of natural graphite using ammonium peroxodisulfate as an oxidizing agent and a high purity of sulfuric acid as an intercalate. The amounts of oxidizing agent and intercalate were changed to determine the preparation conditions of expanded graphite as the anode material for high-power Li-ion batteries. The expanded graphite was tested as the anode material and further composited with the different amounts of petroleum pitch to improve the electrochemical properties. Although the expanded graphite anode showed the improved electrochemical properties such as initial reversible capacities of around 400 mAh/g and a charge capacity at 5 C-rate of 83 mAh/g as compared with those for the natural graphite anode of 378 and 19.4 mAh/g, respectively, it still had some weak points for a high-power anode material such as low initial efficiency and potential plateaus with the stage characteristic. The anode composites with high performance could be obtained by compositing the expanded graphite and the petroleum pitch at the ratio of 1:2, showing an improved initial efficiency of 78 % and decreased potential plateaus with 389 mAh/g of the initial reversible capacity.