Carbon nanotube anode reduces risk in lithium batteries

This is the claim of researchers at Texas A&M University whose results are published in Nano Letters.

"We have designed the next generation of anodes for lithium batteries that are efficient at producing large and sustained currents needed to quickly charge devices," said Juran Noh, a material sciences graduate student at Texas A&M. "Also, this new architecture prevents lithium from accumulating outside the anode, which over time can cause unintended contact between the contents of the battery's two compartments, which is one of the major causes of device explosions."

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A commonly used anode material is graphite. In these anodes, lithium ions are inserted between layers of graphite. However, Noh said this design limits the amount of lithium ions that can be stored within the anode and can require more energy to remove the ions from the graphite during charging.