Nickel Nitride for Li-ion anode material with good reversible capacity

We can't begin to tell you how many articles like the following we have heard and even posted. What is scarcer than hen's teeth are the follow up stories trumpeting a breakthrough chemistry that can be reliably used in automotive applications. Someday (hopefully sooner rather than later), you will read about it here.

From Green Car Congress:

Researchers in France and Spain have designed a nickel nitride material for use as an anode in Li-ion batteries that shows good reversible capacity. A paper on their work is published in the RSC Journal of Materials Chemistry.

Nickel nitride was prepared through different routes involving ammonolysis of different precursors (Ni(NH₃)₆Br₂ or nickel nanoparticles obtained from the reduction of nickel nitrate with hydrazine) and thermal decomposition of nickel amide obtained by precipitation in liquid ammonia.

The electrochemical behavior against lithium was tested in all cases, the specific capacity being much larger for the latter (1200 mA h g^-1 compared to 85 mA h g^-1 and 125 mAh g^-1 respectively). Ni₃N ‘cast’ electrodes exhibited good rate capability, with 500 mAh g^-1 reversible capacity maintained after 10 cycles at a rate of 1 Li per h.

—Gillot et al.