Recent progress on germanium-based anodes for lithium ion batteries: Efficient lithiation strategies and mechanisms

Germanium-based materials with extremely high theoretical energy capacities have gained a lot of attention recently as potential anodes for lithium ion batteries. These materials can also offer improved Li insertion/extraction kinetics and cycling performance, providing a promising candidate of anode to meet the increasing demand for batteries with higher energy and power densities. In this review, we summarized the recent research progress on germanium-based anodes, from the fundamental understanding of the lithiation process to different kinds of germanium-based anodes and their facile and lower-cost preparation methods. The impact of the morphology of these germanium-based anodes on the electrochemical performance is also outlined. This review could serve as a handy reference, as well as a starting point, for future research related to high capacity germanium-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries.