Advances in cathode nanomaterials for lithium-ion batteries

Energy resources, consumption, and management are among the most important issues of this century. Our dependence on fossil fuels should be changed by eco-friendlier renewable energies. Further, the generated electrical energy should be stored for improving mobile applications, being batteries the most used system for this purpose. Lithium-ion batteries are the most promising battery type and are composed of three main elements: cathode, anode, and separator/electrolyte. The active material of the cathode is primarily responsible for the battery capacity, and for that reason, different cathode materials have been developed and explored for lithium-ion batteries. In the present work, the most relevant cathode materials are presented, their main properties and characteristics described, and their advantage and disadvantage analyzed, allowing to understand to which extent those materials are suitable for specific applications in this field.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013 project PTDC/CTM-ENE/5387/2014, project no. PTDC/FISMAC/28157/2017, and grant SFRH/BPD/112547/2015 (C.M.C.). The authors thank the Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKARTEK and HAZITEK Programs for its financial support