Silicon monoxide (SiO) is a promising next-generation anode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its high gravimetric and volumetric capacity. Comparative to commercially used graphite, silicon monoxide offers 18% increase in volumetric energy density on the cell stack level. Compared to future silicon anode, it offers more stable cycle performance, and is therefore a more practical choice for near world applications. Despite the advantages offered by its microstructure and the improved cycle performance enabled by further modification and treatment, the cycle life of silicon monoxide is still far from being good enough in order to be widely used. The primary focus of this work is to obtain better understanding of the major causes of capacity fading and to improve the capacity retention. In order to achieve this, we investigated the electrode composition effects on the capacity retention. Furthermore, the structural effect of silicon monoxide its electrochemical performance is explored.

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) Vehicle Technologies Office. This work is conducted under the Cell Analysis, Modeling, and Prototyping (CAMP) Facility at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Laboratory operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.