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Recycling of waste plastics and scalable preparation of Si/CNF/C composite as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

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Abstract

An economical and practical strategy is proposed for preparation of silicon/carbon nanofibers/carbon (Si/CNF/C) composite for lithium-ion batteries using self-prepared micron-sized silicon and waste high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as raw materials. The obtained Si/CNF/C composite is characterized by SEM, TGA, and XRD, as well as electrochemical characterization. Through a simple pyrolysis approach, pyrolyzed carbon and carbon nanofibers are obtained which acts as a carbon-conductive network and restrains the volumetric expansion of Si during Li-ion insertion/deinsertion processes. The obtained Si/CNF/C composite possesses high initial coulombic efficiency of 82.2% and a steady reversible capacity of 937 mAh g−1 (1685 mAh g−1 based on Si) after 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g−1. The strategy proposed here provides a novel way to synthesize high value-added nanocarbon materials for LIBs by reutilization of waste plastics.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Limited, Zhongnengguiye Limited Co. for providing the polycrystalline silicon materials.

Funding

This work was financially supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 21701083, U1730136) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2017XKQY062).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Wei, Zaohong Zhang, Zongyuan Zhu, Yueyue Wang & Yizhi Wang

  2. eTrust Power Group Ltd., Zhenjiang, 212132, People’s Republic of China

    Xinping Zhou

  3. Lithium-ion Batteries Laboratory, School of Materials Science and Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, People’s Republic of China

    Quanchao Zhuang

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  1. Tao Wei
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Correspondence to Tao Wei or Quanchao Zhuang.

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Wei, T., Zhang, Z., Zhu, Z. et al. Recycling of waste plastics and scalable preparation of Si/CNF/C composite as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Ionics 25, 1523–1529 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-019-02892-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-019-02892-y

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