title: A Well-Defined Silicon Nanocone-Carbon Structure for Demonstrating Exclusive Influences of Carbon Coating on Silicon Anode of Lithium-Ion Batteries.
abstract: Nanotechnology and carbon coating have been applied to silicon anodes to achieve excellent lithium-ion batteries, but the exclusive influence of carbon coating on solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation is difficult to exhibit distinctly because of the impurity and morphological irregularity of most nanostructured anodes. Here, we design a silicon nanocone-carbon (SNC-C) composite structure as a model anode to demonstrate the significant influences of carbon coating on SEI formation and electrochemical performance, unaffectedly as a result of pure electrode component and distinctly due to regular nanocone morphology. As demonstrated by morphological and elemental analysis, compared to the SNC electrode, the SNC-C electrode maintains a thinner SEI layer (∼10 nm) and more stable structure during cycling as well as longer cycle life (>725 cycles), higher Coulombic efficiency (>99%), and lower electrode polarization. This well-defined structure clearly shows the interface stability attributed to carbon coating and is promising in fundamental research of the silicon anode.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4963-6571
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaohui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bonan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Geng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Baogang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Quan
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jieyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Junjie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Changzhi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xinping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liquan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
keywords: carbon coating; electrochemical performance; lithium-ion batteries; silicon nanocone; solid−electrolyte interphase