Stefano Passerini, Bruno Scrosati, Rinaldo Raccichini and Alberto Varzi, members of the HIU-group Electrochemistry for Batteries, published a critical review of existing literature on graphene’s applications to batteries in the journal Nature Materials at the end of 2014. The progress article has been included as related article in the Nature Outlook edition on batteries. The authors of this edition demonstrate the possibilities of electrochemical energy storage in the future, identify the challenges for battery research and discuss new battery systems and materials.
As graphene has been lauded as a miracle material, the HIU-researchers resolved to analyse the previous findings. Initially they focused their review on experiments comparing graphene with graphite, the material currently most favored for negative electrodes in Lithium-ion batteries. But because they found only selective improvements, they chose to do a comprehensive literature review. The result was that a large percentage of publications focusing on the use of graphene for electrochemical batteries overestimated the potential capacity of graphene. In spite of enormous amounts of research data, it is not proven yet that the praising of graphene is justified. The researchers concluded that the major challenge in the future is to fill the gap between laboratory research and practical applications.
Please find the article in Nature Outlook here.