High-efficiency storage of lithium with single-walled carbon nanotubes

A new method for storing lithium, allowing the Li/C ratio to reach two times the highest ratio reported in the literature, is proposed with the help of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The main idea is to use single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to suck in lithium nanoparticles. The MD simulations show that SWCNTs can repeatedly absorb and release lithium nanoparticles at certain temperatures, thus making this a practical method for storing lithium. Using force-field MD simulations, the effect of the temperature, initial position of the nanoparticles, simulation time, and diameters of SWCNTs on the absorption and release processes were investigated.