# Battery materials: templates

> Lithium batteries from the crystal up: how a lithium-ion cell works, LiCoO₂, LiFePO₄, LiMn₂O₄ and Ni-rich NMC cathodes, graphite and its SEI, silicon anodes, lithium–sulfur, solid-state electrolytes, and making and testing a coin cell.

URL: https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials

11 templates. All templates: https://www.labcanvas.com/templates

- [Inside a lithium-ion cell, from can to crystal (3D renders)](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/inside-lithium-ion-cell-can-crystal-3d-renders) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/inside-lithium-ion-cell-can-crystal-3d-renders.md)): A graphical abstract made of path-traced 3D renders: a cylindrical lithium-ion cell cut away, its electrode stack in cross-section, and the two crystals that host the lithium, layered LiCoO₂ and graphite. Every render keeps its 3D scene: double-click one to open it in the 3D studio, turn it, restyle it and update it in the figure.
- [How a lithium-ion battery works](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-ion-battery-how-it-works-rocking-chair) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-ion-battery-how-it-works-rocking-chair.md)): A lithium-ion battery stores energy by moving lithium ions between two host materials. Charging drives Li⁺ out of layered LiCoO₂, through the electrolyte and into graphite while electrons go round the outside circuit; on discharge both flow back and power the load. The electrolyte only survives between its LUMO and HOMO, and graphite sits above that window, so a thin passivating layer (the SEI) has to form for the cell to work.
- [LiCoO₂: the layered oxide cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/licoo2-layered-oxide-cathode-structure) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/licoo2-layered-oxide-cathode-structure.md)): Lithium cobalt oxide, the cathode of the first lithium-ion cells, is built of CoO₂ slabs with lithium in the layers between them, where it can move freely in two dimensions. Charging pulls lithium out to Li₁₋ₓCoO₂ near 3.9 V; at about half the lithium the ions order and the lattice distorts, so in practice only about half of the 274 mAh g⁻¹ is used.
- [LiFePO₄: the olivine cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lifepo4-olivine-cathode-two-phase) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lifepo4-olivine-cathode-two-phase.md)): Lithium iron phosphate is cheap, non-toxic and very stable: iron and phosphate build a rigid olivine framework, and lithium sits in one-dimensional channels running through it. Lithium leaves at about 3.5 V by turning LiFePO₄ into FePO₄, two phases sharing one framework, which gives the famously flat voltage. Making the particles small and coating them with carbon was what unlocked nearly all of the 170 mAh g⁻¹.
- [LiMn₂O₄: the spinel cathode](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/limn2o4-spinel-cathode-jahn-teller) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/limn2o4-spinel-cathode-jahn-teller.md)): Manganese spinel is cheap and fast: MnO₆ octahedra form a three-dimensional framework, and lithium in tetrahedral sites can move in all three directions. Lithium comes out in two steps near 4 V. Push more lithium in, though, and Mn³⁺ appears; its Jahn–Teller distortion stretches the octahedra and the cubic crystal turns tetragonal, and Mn³⁺ can dissolve into the electrolyte, the spinel’s weak points.
- [Ni-rich NMC: more capacity, less stability](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/nmc811-nickel-rich-cathode-co-precipitation) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/nmc811-nickel-rich-cathode-co-precipitation.md)): NMC cathodes replace most of LiCoO₂’s cobalt with nickel and some manganese, all sharing one layer of the same structure. They are made by co-precipitating a mixed hydroxide as dense spheres and then heating it with a lithium salt. The more nickel, the more capacity, as NMC811 shows; but retention and thermal stability fall with it, and particles crack along their grain boundaries as they cycle.
- [The graphite anode: staging and the SEI](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/graphite-anode-staging-sei-formation) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/graphite-anode-staging-sei-formation.md)): Graphite stores lithium between its graphene layers, filling them in stages, every fourth, third, second and finally every gallery as LiC₆, which opens the layers by about 10%. Graphite works in carbonate electrolytes only because the electrolyte decomposes on the first charge into a thin solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) that lets lithium ions through but stops electrons. The lithium locked in the SEI is lost from the cell.
- [Silicon anodes: huge capacity, huge swelling](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/silicon-anode-volume-expansion-nanowires) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/silicon-anode-volume-expansion-nanowires.md)): Silicon can take up almost ten times more lithium per gram than graphite, but it swells to nearly four times its volume as it does. Bulk particles crack, lose contact and grow fresh SEI on every new surface, so the capacity fades. Silicon nanowires grown straight on the current collector have room to swell: they stay whole and connected, and keep most of their capacity over cycling.
- [Lithium–sulfur: a carbon host and the polysulfide shuttle](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-sulfur-battery-cmk-3-polysulfide-shuttle) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/lithium-sulfur-battery-cmk-3-polysulfide-shuttle.md)): Sulfur can store far more lithium per gram than any oxide cathode, by turning all the way into Li₂S. But sulfur and Li₂S are insulators, the solid swells as it reacts, and the polysulfides formed on the way dissolve and shuttle to the lithium anode. Melting sulfur into the narrow channels of an ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) wired it up and helped keep the polysulfides in place.
- [Solid-state batteries: ceramic electrolytes](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/solid-state-battery-lgps-llzo-electrolytes) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/solid-state-battery-lgps-llzo-electrolytes.md)): A solid-state battery replaces the flammable liquid electrolyte with a ceramic that conducts lithium ions, which could also make a lithium-metal anode practical. Some solids now conduct as well as liquids: the sulfide Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ reaches 12 mS cm⁻¹ at room temperature, and the garnet oxide Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ is a fast, stable conductor. The hard part is the interfaces, where contact, chemistry and lithium filaments decide whether the cell lasts.
- [Making and testing a coin cell](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/cr2032-coin-cell-assembly-testing) ([Markdown](https://www.labcanvas.com/templates/battery-materials/cr2032-coin-cell-assembly-testing.md)): Most new battery materials are first tried in a CR2032 coin cell, a steel can 20 mm across and 3.2 mm thick. The electrode is cast from a slurry onto metal foil and punched into discs; the cell is stacked in an argon glovebox, filled with electrolyte and crimped shut. Formation cycles, long cycling with coulombic efficiency and impedance then show how the material behaves, as long as cells are made and tested the same way each time.