Advances in preparation methods and mechanism analysis of layered double hydroxide for lithium-ion batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries

Abstract Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery and lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery have attracted significant attention as promising components for large-scale energy storage because of high theoretical capacity of Li, excellent energy density or environmental friendness for two kinds of batteries. However, there still exist some respective obstacles for commercial applications, such as limited theoretical capacity, high cost and low conductivity of Li-ion cells or shuttle effect of lithium polysulfides of Li-S cells. As typical two-dimensional materials, layered double hydroxides (LDHs) exhibit excellent potential in the field of energy storage due to facile tunability of composition, structure and morphology as well as convenient composite and strong catalytic properties. Consequently, various LDHs toward novel separators or interlayers, cathodes, anodes, and interesting catalytic templates are researched to resolve these challenges. In this review, the recent progress for LDHs applied in Li-ion batteries and Li-S batteries including the synthesis methods, designs and applications is presented and reviewed. Meanwhile, the existing challenges and future perspectives associated with material designs and practical applications of LDHs for these two classes of cells are discussed. WeWe hope that the review can attract more attention and inspire more profound researches toward the LDH-based electrochemical materials for energy storage.