Long-term prospects of nano-carbon and its derivatives as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries – A review

Despite the development of various anode materials and the passing of thirty years from the earliest marketed lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), graphite continues to be a dominant anode for rapidly rising electronics industry due to its excellent cyclic performance. Boosting the energy and power delivery capacities of LIBs is necessary in the light of newly discovered impetus for the development of electric and hybrid electric cars to lessen dependence of transportation industry on fossil fuels. Alloying/dealloying and conversion type anode materials offer extremely high capacities, increasing their prospect for high energy applications. However, their excessive volumetric fluctuations and low ionic/electronic conductivities result in unstable solid electrolyte interface, poor cyclic stability, and low Faradaic efficiency. Carbon nanostructures with low volume expansion, high mechanical strength and flexibility, enhanced ion diffusion rates and conductivity have been anticipated to deal with these issues. Yet, the widespread use of carbon nanostructures, as anodes, is still in its infancy due to their low areal and volumetric densities. Several tactics, including doping, creation of composites, and structure modification, have been proposed as successful ways to address these problems. This review's main objective is to bring forth some recent developments done in the past four years in creating LIBs with enhanced capacity, exceptional rate performance, and outstanding cyclic stability employing various types of carbon nanostructure-based anodes. This paper provides a concise overview of each of the recognized carbon nanoallotropes, categorizing them according to their dimensionality (0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D), and provides a thorough analysis of the electrochemical performance of each carbon nanoallotrope and its derivatives in a systematic manner. For each class of materials, theoretical calculation methods, including density functional theory, first-principles calculations, etc., have been documented.