Graphene in Lithium-ions batteries: why?
Lithium has a standard redox potential equal to -$3.04$ V. Coupled with any compound at the cathode, it could hardly produce cells yielding more than $4$ Volts, because part of the available energy is needed and lost to extract the external electron of the Lithium atom. The performance of a cell built with a Lithium anode could be more important if the Lithium was already ionized. That's what is done with graphene. When introducing Lithium atom in a graphene structure, its electron is not so strongly attracted by the Lithium nucleus. Lithium inserted between graphene layers behaves as if it was already partly ionized. That is why Lithium in graphene produces an anode which can deliver about $5$ Volts if coupled with a convenient cathode made of Lithium and Cobalt(III) oxides. Graphene plus Lithium may be considered as a mixture of Lithium ions $\ce{Li+}$ and &quot;nearly free&quot; electrons delocalized in the graphene structure.