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  • Review Article
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The role of nanotechnology in the development of battery materials for electric vehicles

Nature Nanotechnology volume 11, pages 1031–1038 (2016)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 10 January 2017

This article has been updated

Abstract

A significant amount of battery research and development is underway, both in academia and industry, to meet the demand for electric vehicle applications. When it comes to designing and fabricating electrode materials, nanotechnology-based approaches have demonstrated numerous benefits for improved energy and power density, cyclability and safety. In this Review, we offer an overview of nanostructured materials that are either already commercialized or close to commercialization for hybrid electric vehicle applications, as well as those under development with the potential to meet the requirements for long-range electric vehicles.

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Figure 1: Structure of LiFePO4.
Figure 2: Comparison of energy diagrams of various cathode materials.
Figure 3: Schematics of strategies to protect cathodes from reacting with non-aqueous electrolytes.
Figure 4: The lithium titanate-carbon nanocomposites as anodes for LIBs.
Figure 5: The 'pomegranate'-structured Si–C nanocomposites as anodes for LIBs.

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Change history

  • 14 December 2016

    In the original version of this Review Article Feng Pan's affiliation should have read: 'School of Advanced Materials, Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, PR China'. This has been updated in the online versions of the Review.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC0206CH11357 with the main support provided by the Vehicle Technologies Office, Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). We also acknowledge support from the Chinese Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, 60439, Illinois, USA

    Jun Lu, Zonghai Chen & Khalil Amine

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Electrochemical and Energy Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, Shanghai, China

    Zifeng Ma

  3. School of Advanced Materials, Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, 518055, PR China

    Feng Pan

  4. Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, 60439, Illinois, USA

    Larry A. Curtiss

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  6. Khalil Amine
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Correspondence to Feng Pan, Larry A. Curtiss or Khalil Amine.

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Lu, J., Chen, Z., Ma, Z. et al. The role of nanotechnology in the development of battery materials for electric vehicles. Nature Nanotech 11, 1031–1038 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2016.207

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