A brief chronicle record of studies on non-silicon (SN, SB, GE)-based alloy type lithium-ion battery anodes

The development of alternative anode materials with higher energy/power densities and longer cycle lives for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has made significant progress to satisfy the increasing demands of electronic devices and electric vehicles. Except for Si, other group IVA and VA elements (Sn, Sb, Ge)-based alloy-type anodes have attracted considerable research interests as promising candidates for next-generation LIBs due to their high theoretical capacities, suitable operating voltages and natural abundances. However, these alloying/dealloying anodes suffer drastic volume changes during lithiation and delithiation, which impede them towards commercial applications. Several strategies have been proposed to solve this problem including reducing particle size, creating unique structures and compositing them with other materials, since the 20th century. In recent years, numerous articles have been published to summarize related research activities. However, to our best knowledge, the evolution of these studies has never been sorted out in a chronological approach. Here, we want to write a chapter about the development of Sn, Sb, Ge-based anode materials with such chronicle perspective. This chapter will be divided into three parts which focus on Sn, Sb, Ge-based anodes, respectively. In each part, various approaches for alleviating volume changes which are corresponding to each kind of mentioned anode are presented by covering a time frame of about the last 20 years.