Carbon coating electrodes

Researchers at the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI) have developed a non-expensive way of providing life-enhancing carbon coating to lithium metal oxide electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Carbon coating the active materials (cathode, anode and electrolyte) can double the lifetime of the lithium-ion cells. However, it is challenging to carbon coat lithium metal oxide in a single step during the synthesis of the oxide. Generally, carbon is coated on oxide materials using a second step, which is not uniform and expensive. In the ARCI method, a carbon precursor is trapped between the transition metal hydroxide layers to minimise the reaction with oxygen even when heat-treated in the air during solid-state synthesis.