Research and development progress of porous foam-based electrodes in advanced electrochemical energy storage devices: A critical review

Foam structure is a three-dimensional (3D) porous skeleton, which has been widely studied in the field of electrochemical energy storage due to its excellent structural properties, such as high specific surface area, suitable pore size distribution, fast ion transport channels and good stability. The special structure of foam improves the synergy between electroactive and substrate materials: the large specific area provides more growth sites, increasing the loading of active material; the interconnected network framework greatly shortens the transport path of electrolyte ions; the 3D pore space relieves stress effect from volume expansion of active materials. Due to these advantages, the prepared energy storage device has high energy/power density and good cycle stability. In this review, we summarize the preparation methods and structural properties of the foam-based electrode materials, such as metal foam, carbon foam, polymer foam and so on. Subsequently, we briefly introduce the important applications of foam-based electrodes in the related energy devices and other fields, such as supercapacitors, rechargeable batteries. Finally, based on these practical applications, we analyze the future development of the foam-based electrode materials.