A method of producing a porous carbon is provided that can change type of functional groups, amount of functional groups, or ratio of functional groups while inhibiting its pore structure from changing. A method of producing a porous carbon includes: a first step of carbonizing a material containing a carbon source and a template source, to prepare a carbonized product; and a second step of immersing the carbonized product into a template removing solution, to remove a template from the carbonized product, and the method is characterized by changing at least two or more of the following conditions: type of the material, ratio of the carbon source and the template source, size of the template, and type of the template removal solution, to thereby control type, amount, or ratio of functional groups that are present in the porous carbon.

An anode material composition is provided for a metal-ion battery that comprises an active material coating, a current conductive current collector, and a conductive interlayer coupling the active material coating to the current collector. The active material coating may have a capacity loading of at least 2 mAh/cm.sup.2 and comprise active material particles that exhibit volume expansion in the range of about 8 vol. % to about 160 vol. % during a first charge-discharge cycle and volume expansion in the range of about 4 vol. % to about 50 vol. % during one or more subsequent charge-discharge cycles.

A compound represented by the Formula 1 and having an argyrodite-type crystal structure:
Li.sub.aM1.sub.xM2.sub.wPS.sub.yM3.sub.z  Formula 1
wherein M1 is at least one element of Group 2 or Group 11 of the periodic table, M2 is at least one metal element other than Li of Group 1 of the periodic table, M3 is at least one element of Group 17 of the periodic table, and wherein 4≤a≤8, 0<x<0.5, 0≤w<0.5, 3≤y≤7, and 0≤z≤2.

Provided are a cobalt-free system, a positive electrode slurry, a slurry homogenization method therefor, and the use thereof. The cobalt-free system comprises a cobalt-free material, a binder, a conductive agent and a pH regulator. The cobalt-free system can reduce the rebound degree of the viscosity of a slurry after leaving to stand to the same degree as that of a ternary 811 single crystal, and can also improve the stability of the coating surface density of the cobalt-free material to the same level as that of a ternary material.

A positive electrode for a secondary battery includes a positive electrode current collector, and a positive electrode mixture layer containing a positive electrode active material and provided on a surface of the positive electrode current collector, wherein the positive electrode active material contains a lithium-containing composite oxide which has a layered structure, and in the lithium-containing composite oxide, nickel occupies 80 atom % or more of a metal other than lithium, and the positive electrode mixture layer has a carbon fiber having an outermost diameter of 5 nm or less, and the carbon fiber is contained by 0.1 parts by mass or less relative to 100 parts by mass of the positive electrode active material.

Silicon particles for use in an electrode in an electrochemical cell are provided. The silicon particles may have outer regions extending about 20 nm deep from the surfaces, the outer regions comprising an amount of aluminum such that a bulk measurement of the aluminum comprises at least about 0.01% by weight of the silicon particles. The bulk measurement of the aluminum may provide the amount of aluminum present at least in the outer regions.

Process for making a particulate lithiated transition metal oxide comprising the steps of: (a) Providing a particulate transition metal precursor comprising Ni, (b) mixing said precursor with at least one compound of lithium and at least one processing additive selected from NaCl, KCl, CuCl.sub.2, B.sub.2O.sub.3, MoO.sub.3, Bi.sub.2O.sub.3, Na.sub.2SO.sub.4, and K.sub.2SO.sub.4 in an amount of from 0.1 to 5% by weight, referring to the entire mixture obtained in step (b), (c) thermally treating the mixture obtained according to step (b) in at least two steps, (c1) at 300 to 500° C. under an atmosphere that may comprise oxygen, (c2) at 650 to 850° C. under an atmosphere of oxygen.

A preparation method of zinc-carbon composite electrode material for zinc ion energy storage device, which includes preparing a zinc-carbon composite negative electrode material, preparing an electrode paste, and preparing a battery electrode; the zinc-carbon composite negative electrode material provided in the present invention can enhance a capacity of the zinc ion energy storage device, enhance a cycle stability of the device, has strong expandability, significantly improves the performance of the zinc ion energy storage device, increases the energy density and prolong the service life, and is easy to be popularized on a large scale.

A method of forming an active material for a positive electrode of a lithium-ion battery includes quenching a powder of the active material in water. The active material may include layered lithium rich nickel manganese oxide.

A negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery, a method for preparing a negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery, and a lithium secondary battery including the negative electrode. The negative electrode for a lithium secondary battery includes a negative electrode current collector layer, a first negative electrode active material layer on one surface or both surfaces of the negative electrode current collector layer, and a second negative electrode active material layer on a surface opposite to a surface of the first negative electrode active material layer facing the negative electrode current collector layer.