Development of carbon coated active materials as anodes for rechargeable batteries

Date

2025-2

Author

Elçi, Aylin

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Over the past decade, rechargeable batteries have become essential energy storage devices owing to their superior advantages. To fulfill the growing energy demands, researchers have focused on developing electrode materials with enhanced rate performance, capacity, and cycle life. This study explores potential anode materials for rechargeable batteries, in particular carbon-coated Sn for lithium-ion batteries and carbon-coated ZnO for alkaline batteries. Graphite anodes in lithium-ion batteries face capacity limitations, necessitating alternative materials. Sn-based anodes attract considerable attention due to their high theoretical specific capacity. However, large volume change associated with lithiation and delithiation processes reduces battery performance, a major obstacle for the utilization of Sn anode. As a way of improving the performance, we developed a carbon coating process using thermal plasma. We successfully synthesized Sn particles with an average size of 53 nm and encapsulate them in a carbon shell typically 12 nm thick. The carbon-coated Sn anodes achieved a discharge capacity of 500 mAh/g after 50 cycles, outperforming bare Sn. For zinc-based alkaline batteries, to improve anode performance we used carbon coating via ball milling of ZnO with plasma black and via a pyrolysis process using glucose. As compared to bare ZnO both processes yielded improved performance, though the performance with pyrolysis was better in terms of cyclic stability. These results demonstrate that carbon coating enhances cycle stability by isolating ZnO from direct electrolyte exposure, mitigating ZnO anode issues. However, so as to develop anodes with acceptable performance, additives are needed to suppress hydrogen evolution which severely limits anode capacity.

Subject Keywords

Carbon coating, Sn@C anode, RF thermal plasma, Lithium-ion batteries, Alkaline batteries

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/114009

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis