Carbon Nanocones as Electrode Material in Lithium Ion Batteries

Abstract

A carbon powder containing carbon nanocones was used as an anode material in lithium ion batteries. The powder was also treated in different ways, chemically, with microwaves, and with heat. The carbon powder was tape casted onto copper before being assembled into batteries with lithium metal as the counter electrode. The batteries were characterized by measuring the capacity during cycling. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the powders and casts. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was done to both the carbon powder and the used anode material.The solid electrolyte interface (SEI) was characterized and found to contain components like ce{(CH2OCO2Li)2}, ce{Li2CO3}, and ce{ROCO2Li}. These are in accordance with what would be expected from results in the literature. SEM was used to find surface orientation of the basal and edge planes, and XRD was used to find the crystallinity.parThese results showed that more graphitized powders were better with emphasis on irreversible capacity. The treated carbon nanocone powders had higher capacity than the graphitized ones, but also higher irreversible capacity.