Beyond Lithium-Ion Battery Technology

Dear Colleagues,

Today's society is relying on the use of lithium (Li) ion batteries to power portable electronics and electric vehicles. However, with the increasing demand for higher energy density, better safety and lower cost, Li-ion batteries are encountering different kinds of challenges and issues. First, the specific capacities of state-of-the-art cathode materials for Li-ion batteries are gradually approaching the theoretical limit. The energy densities of current Li-ion batteries remain insufficient for many emerging applications. Second, the lithium resource is not abundant on the Earth’s crust, which remains a critical barrier to the widespread scale-up of Li-ion batteries to stationary energy storage systems. Moreover, the use of flammable organic liquid electrolytes in Li-ion batteries possesses serious safety issues under abuse overheated or overcharged conditions.

Continuous development of novel battery chemistries and electrode materials are highly desired to build better batteries beyond Li-ion batteries. The “beyond Li-ion” batteries with various anodes (like Na, Zn and Al), cathodes (such as sulfur and air) and solid-state electrolytes are emerging alternative systems because of their high energy density, low cost, good safety, environmental friendliness, etc. In this context, we are calling for papers on this Special Issue to promote current research on inorganic materials for battery technology beyond lithium-ion.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

• Sulfur, air and carbon dioxide cathodes;
• Li-metal anodes;
• Na/K ion batteries;
• Multivalent metal (Zn, Ca, Mg, Al) ion batteries;
• Redox flow batteries;
• Inorganic or polymer solid-state electrolytes.

Dr. Faxing Wang
Dr. Tao Wang
Guest Editors

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