Strategies, design and synthesis of advanced nanostructured electrodes for rechargeable batteries

Nanotechnology and nanomaterials engineering have played a crucial role in the recent development of energy conversion and storage systems. Huge efforts have been made for advancing energy storage technologies particularly battery technologies including lithium-ion, sodium-ion, potassium-ion, and lithium-sulfur batteries. As electrodes (anodes and cathodes) are the key components of these rechargeable batteries, any improvement in electrode materials can effectively enhance the performance of these devices. The combination of nanotechnology and nanomaterials engineering has been proven to meet this challenge through the discovery or development of new materials chemistry, especially frontier materials at the nanoscale. In this review article, we briefly summarize our battery research based on the application of a wide range of nanomaterials over the last decade. The major goal of this review is to highlight various strategies to tackle problems associated with electrode materials and to discuss different approaches for the synthesis of nanomaterials with improved electrochemical performance. To achieve high performance rechargeable batteries, various design and synthesis strategies as well as new material properties are discussed. A number of future research directions are also suggested in this review article.