Past, Present and Future of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract Since the first introduction of lithium-ion batteries into the market in 1991 by Sony, extensive improvements in their performances have been carried out. We believed that our LIBs utilizing hard carbon were very desirable for mobile gears. But it was not long before we were made to notice that there existed discrepancies between the required characteristics and our results. Although many novel technologies have been disclosed to improve the LIB performance further, some of them are rather different from the requirements. In this chapter, some new technologies are discussed from this perspective.