Structural design and material preparation of carbon-based electrodes for high-performance lithium storage systems

The performance of lithium storage systems is commonly hindered by the undesirable electrochemical problems, for instance, the sluggish conductivity of lithium ions, the solvent of metal ions, the significant volume variation during cycling, the aggregation and pulverization of electrodes. The introduction of carbon-based nanocomposites provides a new way to solve these problems, due to their unique properties of electrical conductivity, temperature resistance and chemical stability. Numerous works have shown that better performance can be achieved by further manufacturing nanocomposites with reasonable structural design through specific synthetic methods. This review aims to systematically summarizes and discuss the development of carbon-based composites in lithium storage systems. Particular attention is placed on strategies employed in preparing these composites, for instance, synchronous chemical route, chemical precipitation reaction, pyrolysis of organic materials, graphite intercalation compounds, plasma-assisted milling and some other methods. Furthermore, the authors also explore the relationship between electrochemical performance and carbon-based composites prepared by different methods. Lastly, the authors analyse the current challenges in the preparation of carbon-based electrode materials and propose the future development directions. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.