Evidence of covalent synergy in silicon-sulfur-graphene yielding highly efficient and long-life lithium-ion batteries.
Silicon has the potential to revolutionize the energy storage capacities of lithium-ion batteries to meet the ever increasing power demands of next generation technologies. To avoid the operational stability problems of silicon-based anodes, we propose synergistic physicochemical alteration of electrode structures during their design. This capitalizes on covalent interaction of Si nanoparticles with sulfur-doped graphene and with cyclized polyacrylonitrile to provide a robust nanoarchitecture. This hierarchical structure stabilized the solid electrolyte interphase leading to superior reversible capacity of over 1,000 mAh g(-1) for 2,275 cycles at 2 A g(-1). Furthermore, the nanoarchitectured design lowered the contact of the electrolyte to the electrode leading to not only high coulombic efficiency of 99.9% but also maintaining high stability even with high electrode loading associated with 3.4 mAh cm(-2). The excellent performance combined with the simplistic, scalable and non-hazardous approach render the process as a very promising candidate for Li-ion battery technology.
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Fathy M
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4884-7820
FM
Hassan
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Rasim
R
Batmaz
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Jingde
J
Li
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Xiaolei
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7751-4849
X
Wang
Chemical and Materials Systems, General Motors Global Research and Development Center, Warren, Michigan 48090, USA.
Xingcheng
X
Xiao
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Aiping
A
Yu
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L3G1.
Zhongwei
Z
Chen