Graphene-based lithium-ion battery anode materials manufactured by mechanochemical ball milling process: A review and perspective

Graphene-based anodes have been broadly used in energy storage devices, in which introducing heteroatom to graphene can endow the pristine graphene with improved optical, physicochemical, structural, and electromagnetic properties, and integrating active anodes with graphene can compensate for the weakness of pristine materials and tailor the overall electrochemical performance. Remarkably, ball milling has been considered as a powerful mixing and exfoliation method for dealing with graphene materials in a high-efficient and large-scale way. By applying the ball milling technology, graphene doping and graphene compositing can be easily realized in a cost-effective and scalable manner. In this review, the current progress in doped graphene such as fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, nitrogen, and sulfur-doped graphene manufactured by ball milling are introduced and discussed in depth. Then, graphene-based composite anodes, such as graphene/silicon, graphene/silicon oxide, graphene/tin, graphene/silicon oxide, graphene/germanium, and graphene/iron oxide et al., are demonstrated by revealing their mechanisms for performance improvements. Finally, we present some challenges and potential directions of graphene-based anodes in the conclusion and outlook part. It is predicted that the mechanochemical ball milling technique will enormously facilitate the exploitation of advanced heteroatom-doped graphene and graphene composite anode materials in lithium-ion batteries.