The preparation of a flake-like glass-ceramic anode material comprised of SiO 2 and GeO 2 for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) is demonstrated. The precursor glass material is prepared via a traditional melt quenching technique. Flake-like glass particles are obtained by compression in the liquid phase via ball milling. A subsequent heat treatment induces crystallization of Ge x Si y O 6 domains inside the vitreous SiO 2 -GeO 2 matrix. This novel glass-ceramic material is applied as an anode material for LIBs and shows a stable reversible capacity of 520 mAh g À1 at 0.2 C combined with good capacity retention of 87% after 100 cycles. This cycling stability can be attributed to the synergistic effects of having nanocrystalline domains embedded in the glass matrix: The open glass network can withstand the volume change and stress caused by the lithium insertion during cycling, while the nanocrystals act as active sites for the electrochemical conversion and alloying reactions. The glass-ceramic anode material exhibits superior electrochemical properties compared to its pure glass counterparts.

Polymer composites and blend systems are of increasing importance, due to the combination of unique and different material properties. Blending polybutylene terephatalte (PBT) with polycarbonate (PC) has been the focus of attention for some time in order to combine thermo-chemical with mechanical resistance. The right compounding of the two polymers is a particular challenge, since phase boundaries between PBT and PC lead to coalescence during melting, and thus to unwanted segregation within the composite material. Amorphization of the semi-crystalline PBT would significantly improve the blending of the two polymers, which is why specific miscibility aids are needed for this purpose. Recent research has focused on the functionalization of polymers with shape-anisotropic glass particles. The advantage of those results from their two-dimensional shape, which not only improves the mechanical properties but are also suspected to act as miscibility aids, as they could catalyze transesterification or act as crystallization modifier. This work presents a process route for the production of PBT-PC blends via co-comminution and an in-situ additivation of the polymer blend particles with anisotropic glass flakes to adjust the crystallinity and therefore enhance the miscibility of the polymers.