Advances in lithium-ion batteries

The editors state in their introduction that this book is intended for lithium-ion scientists and engineers but they hope it may be of interest to scientists from other fields. Their main aim was to provide a snapshot of the state of the Lithium-ion art and in this they have largely succeeded. The book is comprised of a collection of very current reviews of the lithium ion battery literature by acknowledged experts that draw heavily on the authors' own research but are sufficiently general to provide the lithium ion researcher with enough guidance to the current literature and the current thinking in the field. Some of the literature references may be too current as there are numerous citations of conference proceedings which may be easily accessible to the lithium ion scientist or engineer but are not likely to be available to the interested chemist coming to the field for the first time. One author expresses the hope and expectation that properly peer-reviewed articles will appear in due course and the interested reader should look out for them in future. From the point of view of the lithium ion battery scientist and engineer, the book covers most of the topics that are of current interest. Two areas are treated by inference in the various chapters but are not specifically granted chapters of their own. One of these is safety and abuse tolerance and the other is cost. Since there are a number of groups active in the investigation of abuse tolerance of these batteries this is a curious omission and obviously the cost factor is a driver for commercial development. The book should be instructive to the chemical community provided the average chemist can obtain some guidance from an electrochemist or battery engineer. Many of the measurements and techniques referred to (e.g. impedance, capacities, etc.) may be somewhat unfamiliar and confusing in the context they are used. Chemists who persevere and can obtain some guidance will find some rich opportunities for the application of analytical, inorganic and organic chemistry to unravel some of the puzzling mysteries of lithium ion batteries. The book begins with an extended chapter on the crucial role of the surface films on electrodes which provides an excellent introduction to the state of thinking in this field. This work is a tour de force in the application of surface analytical techniques and clearly demonstrates some of the shortcomings in the mechanism development. Several other chapters also provide ample evidence of opportunities for mechanistic determination and the chemist may be left with a rather alarming impression of a very unstable electrolyte system. However, the chapter on surface films will sound familiar to any chemist who has suffered the vagaries of a recalcitrant Grignard reaction. Since the operation of these surface films is of such importance to lithium ion batteries one is amazed that their formation appears to be left to serendipity. Clearly, there are great opportunities here for imaginative chemists and engineers