title: Recycling rice husks for high-capacity lithium battery anodes.
abstract: The rice husk is the outer covering of a rice kernel and protects the inner ingredients from external attack by insects and bacteria. To perform this function while ventilating air and moisture, rice plants have developed unique nanoporous silica layers in their husks through years of natural evolution. Despite the massive amount of annual production near 10(8) tons worldwide, so far rice husks have been recycled only for low-value agricultural items. In an effort to recycle rice husks for high-value applications, we convert the silica to silicon and use it for high-capacity lithium battery anodes. Taking advantage of the interconnected nanoporous structure naturally existing in rice husks, the converted silicon exhibits excellent electrochemical performance as a lithium battery anode, suggesting that rice husks can be a massive resource for use in high-capacity lithium battery negative electrodes.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Energy Environment Water Sustainability, World Class University and KAIST Institute NanoCentury and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yuseong Gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea.
authors.forename: Dae Soo
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Myung-Hyun
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Ryou
authors.forename: Yong Joo
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Sung
authors.forename: Seung Bin
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Jang Wook
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004566:Electrodes; D008094:Lithium; D017348:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning Transmission; D012275:Oryza
chemical_list: D008094:Lithium