Facile synthesis of Ge@FLG composites by plasma assisted ball milling for lithium ion battery anodes

Abstract

Efficient production of graphene or its germanium (Ge) composites remains a challenge, although Ge nanoparticles (NPs) wrapped with graphene are suitable for preventing the large volume change of anodes for lithium ion batteries during Li uptake and release processes. This work is the first simple, efficient in situ synthesis of Ge NPs, with an excellent structure, wrapped with few-layer graphene sheets (abbreviated as Ge@FLG) from commercial Ge powders and natural graphite by a one-step ball-milling process assisted by dielectric-barrier discharge plasma. Because of their unique structure, Ge@FLG electrodes exhibit better electrical conductivity, low initial capacity loss, good cycling capability, and rate resilience compared with Ge@C electrodes prepared by conventional milling. This work highlights a new method for the efficient production of Ge@FLG composites and their applications in lithium ion batteries and in other technologies.