Graphene girders extend the life of lithium-ion batteries

When you want to make a structure stronger, put a girder across it. It’s a simple principle that every civil engineer knows well. But a team at Warwick Manufacturing Group has found that it applies just as well on very small scales as in megastructures. Melanie Loveridge and colleagues are studying methods for improving lithium-ion batteries, and have found that minute girders could provide an answer to a problem that has been plaguing the field.

Ever since their first introduction in the early 1990s, the anode of lithium batteries has been made of graphite. It has long been apparent that silicon would be a better material, as it can hold ten times more charge per gramme than carbon. But the mechanics of lithium ion batteries, where lithium ions are absorbed into the anode, create problems.

When silicon is lithiated, it expands. But it is an inelastic material, and repeated expansion and contraction — as happens during charge-discharge cycles — can lead to cracking and crumbling, which makes the capacity of the battery fade over time. Graphene has been tried as a reinforcing material for nanostructured silicon, but this has led to other problems.