Silicon nanowire anode: Improved battery life with capacity-limited cycling

Metal-assisted chemical etching of silicon and the behavior of nanoscale silicon materials as Li-ion battery anodes

“…Doped and undoped Si NWs were grown via CVD with an Au catalyst on stainless steel current collectors [260]. The initial capacity exhibited by the undoped NWs was 2,014 mAh·g -1 and retained a capacity of > 1,500 mAh·g -1 after 20 cycles at a C/20 rate.…”

Cycling strategies for optimizing silicon nanowires performance as negative electrode for lithium battery

“…However, only a few papers deal with the influence of the cycling conditions and provide some indications to enhance the capacity retention, for instance by increasing the lower cut-off voltage above 100 mV [13][14][15][16]. Chakrapani et al [17] observed the promising effect of capacity limitation during delithiation process. In conventional carbonates mixture as electrolyte, they obtained up to 200 cycles at 1000 mAh g À1 with a slow rate of C/10.…”

A combined photovoltaic and Li ion battery device for continuous energy harvesting and storage

“…The low Coulombic efficiency for the first cycle is partially due to SEI formation. Si nanowires grown on a stainless steel substrate showed a first cycle efficiency of 86% (not shown) and a steady state efficiency of 98% for all subsequent cycles [7]. On further cycling, the performance of the Si nanowire/TiN contact improved with second and third cycle efficiencies of 67% and 78%, respectively.…”

“…The as-deposited films appeared golden yellow in color. Nominally undoped Si nanowires were grown on top of the TiN film by chemical vapor deposition in a manner similar to that described previously [7,11]. A 5 nm Au film, which served as the catalyst for Si nanowire growth, was deposited on the TiN/W/Ti/Si stack via e-beam evaporation at a pressure less than 10 À7 Torr.…”

“…New, ultrahigh energy density anode materials with longer cycle lifetimes are needed to meet this demand. In this regard, Si-based materials are of interest as the anode for high density Li ion batteries due to their demonstrated lithiation capacity of w4000 mAh g À1 [6,7]. Unfortunately, structural degradation caused by the large volume expansion of the Si (>400%) during lithiation greatly reduces cycle lifetime.…”