Easy Diameter Tuning of Silicon Nanowires with Low-Cost SnO2-Catalyzed Growth for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Silicon nanowires are appealing structures to enhance the capacity of anodes in lithium-ion batteries. However, to attain industrial relevance, their synthesis requires a reduced cost. An important part of the cost is devoted to the silicon growth catalyst, usually gold. Here, we replace gold with tin, introduced as low-cost tin oxide nanoparticles, to produce a graphite–silicon nanowire composite as a long-standing anode active material. It is equally important to control the silicon size, as this determines the rate of decay of the anode performance. In this work, we demonstrate how to control the silicon nanowire diameter from 10 to 40 nm by optimizing growth parameters such as the tin loading and the atmosphere in the growth reactor. The best composites, with a rich content of Si close to 30% wt., show a remarkably high initial Coulombic efficiency of 82% for SiNWs 37 nm in diameter.

Low-Cost Tin Compounds as Seeds for the Growth of Silicon Nanowire–Graphite Composites Used in High-Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

“…Diphenylsilane is a very favorable silicon source for SiNW growth from gold catalysts − at 420–500 °C but tin catalysts are active at a much lower temperature of 250–400 °C, , at which diphenylsilane reactivity is more sluggish. We thus substituted with a mixture of diphenylsilane and phenylsilane (70/30 mol %) as the silicon precursor to increase the reactivity at 380 °C (reaction time: 4 hours) . Si loadings up to 25 wt % were attained, with a Sn content of about Sn/Si = 15 wt %.…”

“…We thus substituted with a mixture of diphenylsilane and phenylsilane (70/30 mol %) as the silicon precursor to increase the reactivity at 380 °C (reaction time: 4 hours). 20 Si loadings up to 25 wt % were attained, with a Sn content of about Sn/Si = 15 wt %.…”

Nanomaterials for Catalysis and Energy Storage

“…The development of nanomaterials with different shapes and sizes and which are utilized as effective materials for energy and environmental applications constitutes a challenge for researchers [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. This is because our society totally depends on electronic devices, which are certainly made up of and based on various types of energy-storage devices [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…The development of nanomaterials with different shapes and sizes and which are utilized as effective materials for energy and environmental applications constitutes a challenge for researchers [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. This is because our society totally depends on electronic devices, which are certainly made up of and based on various types of energy-storage devices [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. These devices are assembled with various types of the materials, including metal oxide, hydroxide, metal composites with carbon-based materials such as graphene, conducting polymers, and carbon nanotubes.…”

“…Three formulations of functionalized and non-functionalized date-leaf carbon nanoparticle (DLCNP) solutions were chosen for core floods based on phase behavior and interfacial tension (IFT) properties to examine their potential for use in smart water and green chemical flooding. This Special Issues also focused on the advanced articles, such as those addressing the pseudocapacitive behavior of multi-walled carbon nanotubes [ 4 ], easy dimeter tuning of silicon nanowire [ 5 ], hexagonal-shaped importance in solar cell applications [ 6 ], and the importance of the phase changes in thermal-energy storage systems [ 9 ]. Overall, this Special Issue will be enriching to interested readers because the collection of articles represents a novel paradigm for energy storage and catalysis.…”