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Hybrid silicon-carbon nanostructured composites as superior anodes for lithium ion batteries

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Abstract

We have successfully fabricated a hybrid silicon-carbon nanostructured composite with large area (about 25.5 in2) in a simple fashion using a conventional sputtering system. When used as the anode in lithium ion batteries, the uniformly deposited amorphous silicon (a-Si) works as the active material to store electrical energy, and the pre-coated carbon nanofibers (CNFs) serve as both the electron conducting pathway and a strain/stress relaxation layer for the sputtered a-Si layers during the intercalation process of lithium ions. As a result, the as-fabricated lithium ion batteries, with deposited a-Si thicknesses of 200 nm or 300 nm, not only exhibit a high specific capacity of >2000 mA·h/g, but also show a good capacity retention of over 80% and Coulombic efficiency of >98% after a large number of charge/discharge experiments. Our approach offers an efficient and scalable method to obtain silicon-carbon nanostructured composites for application in lithium ion batteries.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Po-Chiang Chen & Jing Xu

  2. Ming-Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA

    Haitian Chen & Chongwu Zhou

Authors
  1. Po-Chiang Chen
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  2. Jing Xu
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  3. Haitian Chen
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  4. Chongwu Zhou
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Correspondence to Chongwu Zhou.

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Chen, PC., Xu, J., Chen, H. et al. Hybrid silicon-carbon nanostructured composites as superior anodes for lithium ion batteries. Nano Res. 4, 290–296 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-0081-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-0081-x

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