Battery electrodes comprise a mixture of active material particles, conductive carbon and binder additives deposited onto a current collector. Although this basic design has persisted for decades, the desired size scale of the active material particle is a matter of debate. Advances in nanotechnology have spurred interest in deploying nanoparticles as the active material. In this Perspective, we compare the features of nanoparticle and microparticle electrodes, and discuss why the battery industry is unlikely to replace microstructures with nanometre-sized analogues. We then address the question of whether there is a place for nanomaterials in battery design. We suggest that the way forward lies in microscale particles with built-in nanoscale features, such as microparticles assembled from nanoscale building blocks or patterned with engineered or natural nanopores. These multiscale particles offer exciting possibilities to develop battery electrodes that are quintessentially both micro and nano with respect to their performance attributes.

电池电极包含沉积在集电器上的活性材料颗粒、导电碳和粘合剂添加剂的混合物。尽管这种基本设计已经持续了几十年，但所需的活性材料颗粒尺寸仍存在争议。纳米技术的进步激发了将纳米粒子用作活性材料的兴趣。在这个观点中，我们比较了纳米粒子和微粒电极的特性，并讨论了为什么电池行业不太可能用纳米尺寸的类似物取代微结构。然后，我们解决了纳米材料在电池设计中是否有一席之地的问题。我们建议前进的道路在于具有内置纳米级特征的微米级粒子，例如由纳米级构件组装而成的微粒，或带有工程或天然纳米孔图案的微粒。这些多尺度粒子为开发电池电极提供了令人兴奋的可能性，就其性能属性而言，这些电极本质上是微米级和纳米级。