Construction of Ge/C nanospheres composite as highly efficient anode for lithium-ion batteries

To effectively improve the electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries through the design and manufacture of a new structure of composite electrode materials. Hence, in this work, we prepared a structure that Ge nanoparticles encapsulate in carbon spheres by a simple two-step method. When applied as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, which serves a specific capacity of 529 mAh g −1 at a current density of 0.1 A g −1 after 100 cycles with the Coulomb efficiency (CE) of over 99.8%. Otherwise, it also obtains preferable cycling stability and rate capability. Its prominent advantages in the electrochemical performance of Ge/C can be due to the synergy between carbon spheres and Ge nanoparticles: including highly electrical conductivity carbon spheres and the coated structure, which can reduce the volume change of Germanium nanoparticles. At the same time, we also provide a novel structure design method for those electrode materials that suffer from huge volume expansion in the course of charging and discharging to suppress their volume expansion, so that they can be better used or create more efficient and practical electrodes.