Review—Current Collectors for Rechargeable Batteries: State-of-the-Art Design and Development Strategies for Commercial Products

This review depicts the various designs of different current collectors for rechargeable batteries, which are either commercially available or have commercial prospects. The functions of current collectors are vividly discussed along with the fundamental properties, i.e., good electrical conductivity and chemical cum electrochemical stabilities under the battery operating window. Based on the required properties, metal or alloy substrates have the best credentials for suitable current collectors; but the anodic corrosion is a bottleneck for them. Therefore, non-metallic current collectors, mainly graphitic substances, could be envisaged, which have low mechanical strength and high cost. Hence, the low cost and robust metallic current collectors with corrosion-protective modifications would be the mostly acceptable. Herein, we elaborate state-of-the-art design and development strategies of current collectors for (i) lead acid batteries, (ii) alkaline batteries, (iii) Li-ion batteries, (iv) Li-metal batteries, (v) Li-sulphur batteries, (vi) metal ion batteries beyond the Li-ion chemistry, (vi) flow batteries and (vii) metal-air batteries. Relative to the electrode active materials and electrolytes, the research and developments (R&D) on current collectors are truly limited. However, to keep the available know-how on current collector technology under a single umbrella, we demonstrate a holistic view that essentially covers the entire spectrum of today’s rechargeable battery market.