Patent ID: 8493711

Claim:
An electrode material comprising: a conformal surface coating of metal oxide, said metal oxide coating comprising one or more of manganese, nickel, cobalt, iron, aluminum, chromium, molybdenum, rhodium, iridium, osmium, rhenium, vanadium, tungsten, tantalum, palladium, lead, tin, titanium, copper, zinc, niobium or lithium, wherein said metal oxide coating is not solely MnO 2 or iron oxide, wherein the average thickness of said metal oxide coating is greater than about 5 nanometers and less than about 1000 nanometers, said metal oxide coating consisting of a crystalline phase, a partially crystalline phase, an amorphous phase or any combination thereof; and a monolithic porous carbon structure comprising a carbon xerogel formed with one or more carbon microfibers, carbon nanofibers, carbon nanotubes, graphite, graphene, carbon black or activated carbon, said porous carbon structure further comprising pores of above average pore size and pores of below average pore size, wherein said pores of above average pore size have an average diameter larger than about two nanometers and wherein pores of below average pore size are smaller than about five micrometers.