Carbon fibre based electrodes for structural batteries

Carbon fibre based electrodes offer the potential to significantly improve the combined electrochemical and mechanical performance of structural batteries in future electrified transport. This review compares carbon fibre based electrodes to existing structural battery electrodes and identifies how both the electrochemical and mechanical performance can be improved. In terms of electrochemical performance achieved to date, carbon fibre based anodes outperform structural anode materials, whilst carbon fibre based cathodes offer similar performance to structural cathode materials. In addition, while the application of coating materials to carbon fibre based electrodes can lead to improved tensile strength compared to that of uncoated carbon fibres, the available mechanical property data are limited; a key future research avenue is to understand the influence of interfaces in carbon fibre based electrodes, which are critical to overall mechanical integrity. This review of carbon fibre based electrode materials, and their assembly strategies, highlights that research should focus on sustainable electrode materials and scalable assembly strategies.