Abstract:

This bimonthly review paper highlights 100 recent published papers on lithium batteries. We searched the Web of Science and found 3062 papers online from Aug. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2020. 100 of them were selected to be highlighted. High-nickel ternary layered, spinel, high-voltage LCO layered cathode materials are still under extensive investigations for studying Li⁺ intercalation-deintercalation mechanism and evolution of structure, and the influences of doping and interface modifications on their electrochemical performances. The researches of silicon-based composite anode materials mainly focus on the design of electrode structure, pre-lithiation and stabilization of the interface while the researches of lithium metal anode mainly focus on the design of electrode structure and further to regulate the growth of SEI and inhibit the formation of lithium dendrites. Large efforts have been devoted to solid state electrolytes including oxide, sulfide, polymer and composite solid state electrolytes. The research works on liquid electrolytes involves mainly the optimal design of solvents, lithium salts and additives, particularly electrolyte for high-voltage spinel cathode materials. For solid-state batteries, there are papers studying the design of alloyed anodes to improve the uniformity of lithium deposition; there are also papers studying the wet coating technology of sulfide solid electrolyte-based all-solid electrodes. The research focus of lithium-sulfur batteries is to improve the activity of sulfur cathodes. The focuses of characterization techniques are on in-situ methods to observe and analyze the material structure, electrode/electrolyte interface, thermal failure mechanism, interface of solid-state batteries etc. Furthermore, there are a few papers related to the theoretical works for the electric structure of materials, Li⁺ transport and Li metal deposition.

Key words: lithium batteries, cathode material, anode material, electrolyte, battery technology