Electrical Explosion Synthesis of Si/C Nanocomposites for Li Secondary Batteries

A novel technique of electrical explosion has been used for nanomaterial synthesis by a single-step process [1-5]. However, it was known that in principle the electrical explosion of Si is not possible due to the fact that applying a high voltage on Si wire having relatively high electrical resistance leads to a current flow through surface plasma formed along the wire which disables the resistive heating of Si. In this presentation, we will show the successful application of electrical explosion to silicon nanoparticle synthesis and the electrochemical properties of Si/C nanocomposites derived from the nanoparticles.

The electrical explosion of Si was successfully applied using a liquid media to suppress the unfavorable surface plasma generation. The physical and chemical properties of the produced materials were analyzed by XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM and the performances of the Si/C composites as an anode for Li ion batteries were investigated by electrochemical charge/discharge measurements. The Si/C composites obtained under the explosion in hexane and ethanol consist of a core-shell structure with a compact graphitic carbon on the Si particle surface which cause detrimental effects against Li ion diffusion. However, we found that Si explosion in methanol minimized the formation of the carbon phase on the surface of nano-sized Si. The Si/C nanocomposite after a simple pyrolysis with carbon precursor showed a high capacity with an excellent cycle performance.

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