The Critical Role of Carbon Nanotubes in Bridging Academic Research to Commercialization of Lithium Batteries.

Rechargeable lithium batteries have been intensively explored due to their potential to deliver a high energy and stable cycling performance. Yet considerable achievements have been reported on battery performance in lab-based research, a broad gap from fundamental research to their industrial application needs to be filled. The significant advances in the field of carbon nanotubes over the past decades make it a promising candidate to bridge such a gap. Nevertheless, a systematic and profound understanding of its roles in Li batteries is lacking. In this review, we discuss the critical role of carbon nanotube in developing several lithium techniques such as Li-ion, Li-sulfur, and Li-air cells. The focus is laid on the elevation of device capacity, energy, and cyclic life to meet the practical demand. We hope this paper, together with other recently-proposed guiding principles, will pave the way for the massive application of carbon nanotube-based lithium batteries.