Free-standing transition metal oxide electrode architectures for electrochemical energy storage

Electrochemical energy storage is becoming more ubiquitous in the world, and with that comes an urgent need for increased performance. One promising approach in the pursuit of next-generation energy storage with simultaneous high energy and high power is through cooperative assembly of electrochemically active materials into conductive scaffolds. In such architectures, the active material is often directly bonded to the conductive scaffold, therefore reducing the need for separate binders and current collectors. The conductive scaffold material can also provide a robust, free-standing structure that is capable of enduring mechanical deformation, which is particularly important for high gravimetric capacity materials that can undergo significant volume changes during electrochemical cycling. This review summarizes several of the most common approaches for developing free-standing binder-free electrode architectures of transition metal oxides that aim to achieve simultaneous high energy and high power for the next generation of electrochemical energy storage devices.