Materials Challenges and Opportunities of Lithium Ion Batteries

Lithium ion batteries have revolutionized the portable electronics market, and they are being intensively pursued now for transportation and stationary storage of renewable energies like solar and wind. The success of lithium ion technology for the latter applications will depend largely on the cost, safety, cycle life, energy, and power, which are in turn controlled by the component materials used. Accordingly, this Perspective focuses on the challenges and prospects associated with the electrode materials. Specifically, the issues associated with high-voltage and high-capacity cathodes as well as high-capacity anodes and the approaches to overcome them are presented.