The negative electrode disclosed herein includes: a negative electrode current collector; and a negative electrode active material layer formed on the surface of the negative electrode current collector. The negative electrode active material layer contains silicon oxide containing at least one alkali earth metal. The negative electrode active material layer includes at least a first layer and a second layer. The first layer is disposed between the second layer and the negative electrode current collector. The second layer contains 2 mass % or less of the silicon oxide containing the alkali earth metal, relative to 100 mass % of the negative electrode active material in the second layer. The amount of the alkali earth metal in the first layer calculated based on energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy using a scanning electron microscope image is higher than the amount of the alkali earth metal in the second layer.

A positive electrode used in a secondary cell that is an example of the present embodiment is provided with a positive electrode collector, an intermediate layer formed on the positive electrode collector, and a positive electrode mixture layer formed on the intermediate layer. The positive electrode mixture layer has a thermally expandable material and a positive electrode active material. The thermally expandable material content of the positive electrode mixture layer is at least 0.1% by mass and less than 5% by mass. The intermediate layer has an insulating inorganic material and a conductive agent. The insulating inorganic material content of the intermediate layer is 80-99% by mass.

A porous reduced graphene oxide containing pores of 2 to 500 nm, a preparation method thereof, a sulfur-carbon composite and a lithium secondary battery comprising the same.

Each of the Ni-containing lithium-based complex oxide A and the Ni-containing lithium-based complex oxide B contains Ni in an amount of 55 mol % or more relative to the total number of moles of metal elements excluding Li, the Ni-containing lithium-based complex oxide A has an average primary particle diameter of 2 μm or more, an average secondary particle diameter of 2 to 6 μm, a particle fracture load of 5 to 35 mN and a BET specific surface area of 0.5 m2/g to 1.0 m2/g, and the Ni-containing lithium-based complex oxide B has an average primary particle diameter of 1 μm or less, an average secondary particle diameter of 10 to 20 μm, a particle fracture load of 10 to 35 mN and a BET specific surface area of 0.1 m2/g to 1.0 m2/g.

Lithium metal anodes have a current collector foil laminated to a layer of lithium metal (or alloy) which has particulate materials at least partially embedded therein to reduce dendrite formation and thus improve the performance and cycle life of the anode. The lithium anodes are conveniently produced using a roller press process.

The present invention is a technology for replacing a lithium ion secondary battery using an inorganic material, which is currently commercially available, and is a technology for constructing a secondary battery using an organic material as an electrode material. The organic electrode has a disadvantage in that the actual energy density is low because it has to include a large amount of carbon-based conductor in the electrode due to poor electrical conductivity. In order to overcome this drawback, in the present invention, the loading amount of the organic active material in the electrode is increased by filling the pores of the carbon structure body, such as porous activated carbon, with an organic electrode material and coating the outside of the carbon structure body with an organic electrode material. In addition, by using a carbon material current collector instead of the conventional metal current collector such as Al or Cu, a flexible and binder-free organic electrode was fabricated to increase the loading amount, reduce the weight of the battery, and improve the electrochemical properties.

A lithium manganate positive electrode active material, comprising a lithium manganate matrix and a cladding layer as a “barrier layer” and a “functional layer” are described. The cladding layer can not only “prevent” the transition metal ions which have been produced by the lithium manganate matrix from directly “running” into the electrolyte solution, but also “prevent” the hydrofluoric acid in the electrolyte solution from directly contacting with the lithium manganate substrate, and then prevent the lithium manganate matrix from dissolving out more transition metal manganese ions; as a “functional layer”, the cladding layer contains various effective ingredients inside, which can reduce the transition metal manganese ions already present inside the battery through chemical reactions or adsorption effects, thus slowing down the generation of transition metal manganese and the decomposition of the SEI film (solid electrolyte interphase film) catalyzed by the transition metal manganese.

A spheronized carbonaceous negative electrode active material and a method of preparing a spheronized carbonaceous negative electrode active material, which has an average particle diameter (D.sub.50) of 8.5-10.5 μm, a minimum particle diameter (D.sub.min) of 2.3 μm or more, and a tap density of 1.00-1.20 g/cc.

Composites of silicon and various porous scaffold materials, such as carbon material comprising micro-, meso- and/or macropores, and methods for manufacturing the same are provided. The compositions find utility in various applications, including electrical energy storage electrodes and devices comprising the same.

Powder comprising particles comprising a matrix material and silicon-based domains dispersed in this matrix material, whereby the matrix material is carbon or a material that can be thermally decomposed to carbon, whereby either part of the silicon-based domains are present in the form of agglomerates of silicon-based domains whereby at least 98% of these agglomerates have a maximum size of 3 μm or less, or the silicon-based domains are not at all agglomerated into agglomerates.