Inverse Opal Nanoarchitectures as Lithium-Ion Battery Materials

Lithium-ion battery technologies enable the proliferation of portable electronic devices and are critical to developing energy infrastructures that will supplant fossil fuels. Inverse opal materials have been evaluated as advanced lithium-ion battery components because an inverse opal’s three-dimensionally ordered, bicontinuous macropore-solid nanostructure supports high rates of electrochemical charging and discharging and can be synthesized in a wide range of compositions that store and transport Li ions. This chapter appraises the state of research about inverse opal materials for lithium-ion anodes, cathodes, and solid-state electrolytes and examines their role in three-dimensionally interpenetrated lithium-ion microbatteries.