The increasing dominance of lithium-ion batteries in the portable power industry has generated a corresponding demand for new improved battery materials. In this paper, we benchmark state-of-the-art graphite materials available in the market place today. These graphite materials possess a wide range of morphological and crystalline properties as evidenced by SEM and XRD techniques. These differing properties lead to varying performance when these graphite materials comprise the active anode material of lithium-ion batteries. The graphites studied demonstrate specific capacities in the 325-370 mAh/g range and electrode densities ranging from 1.4-1.9 g/cc. Under consistent formulation, the graphite materials show similar efficiencies but greatly different cyclabilities. Current graphite materials do not attain their maximum theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g while providing other key battery performance features. Theoretical calculations show that the use of electron acceptors doped into the graphite lattice should lower the activation energy for the Li~+ intercalation process. Next-generation carbon-based materials will likely take advantage of these techniques to meet the increasing technological demands of the portable power industry.
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