Silicon Nanowires Coated with C60 Layer As Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Secondary Batteries

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) with C60 coating layer as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries have been successfully synthesized by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and plasma assisted thermal evaporation methods. The morphology, structure and electrochemical performance of C60 coated Si NWs are investigated in further. The results showed that the  C60 coated Si NWs electrodes show an initial coulombic efficiency of 77% when cycling between 0 and 1.5 V (versus Li/Li+) at a current density of 100 μAcm^-2 . The C60 coated Si NWs electrodes perform a capacity as high as 3377 mAhg−1 at the first cycle. Furthermore, they also demonstrate a good capacity retention  compared with the un-coated ones due to the small interfacial resistance at the electrode/electrolyte interface.