Physical characterization of carbonaceous materials prepared by mechanicalgrinding

By means of mechanical grinding, we recently reported the ability to prepar e tailor-made carbon materials able to reversibly intercalate two lithiums per six carbons (e.g., Li2C6) while having irreversible capacities of 320 m A h/g. A schematic model involving two different types of surface area was previously proposed to account for the reversible and irreversible capaciti es measured vs. Li with these powders. We experimentally verified this mode l by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. Transmi ssion Electronic Microscopy (TEM), which is a powerful tool for the direct imaging of poorly organized materials at the atomic scale has been used, to gether with Raman Spectroscopy, to follow the disorganization generated by mechanical grinding. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.