Oxides with Intercalation-Deintercalation Reaction

Lithium ion can be intercalated, more or less, into most kinds of carbon, and the resulting lithiated carbons show extremely negative electrochemical potentials close to that of the metallic lithium electrode. The reversible intercalation/deintercalation reactions overcome the problem of dendrite formation of lithium and provide dramatic improvements in safety and cycleability. The carbon anodes are combined with non-aqueous electrolyte solutions and lithium-transition metal oxides such as LiCoOg as cathodes to fabricate 4 V-class LIBs. Only lithium ion moves back and forth between the cathode and the anode upon charging and discharging, which give rise to a potential difference of about 4 V between the two electrodes. The name, "lithium-ion" batteries came from this simple mechanism. 

This may lead to the irreversible changes in the material, caused by partial oxidation of graphite, loss of reversibility of the system along with the efficiency of reaction for intercalation-deintercalation (1). 

When cationic guest atoms such as lithium, hydrogen, and sodium reversibly enter or leave the host oxide crystal, along with an accompanying electron flow but without any change in crystal structure, the reaction is referred to as intercalation/ deintercalation as follows [1, 2] ... 

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