Ball-milling :: an alternative way for the preparation of anodes for lithium-ion batteries

The preparation of new anodic materials for lithium-ion batteries is possible by ball-milling within liquid media. Those powders can be as diverse as : highly anisometric graphite particles (geometrical anisotropy around 100), graphite-maghemite (gamma Fe2O3) composites and graphite-intercalation compounds with high lithium contents (e.g. LiC3 is obtained by ball-milling of Li + 2C powders). These phases are the first superdense graphite-lithium compounds stable under ambient pressure and lead to a capacity of 1 Ah/g as primary battery and 370 mAh/g as secondary one. The synthesis and characterizations (chemical analysis, XRD, pycnometry, TEM, SEM, Li-7 NMR, magnetic measurements) are presented for each materials as well as the electrochemical behavior.