Lixia Xi

Sandwich Nanoarchitecture of Si/Reduced Graphene Oxide Bilayer Nanomembranes for Li-Ion Batteries with Long Cycle Life

The large capacity loss and huge volume change of silicon anodes severely restricts their practical applications in lithium ion batteries. In this contribution, the sandwich nanoarchitecture of rolled-up Si/reduced graphene oxide bilayer nanomembranes was designed via a strain released strategy. Within this nanoarchitecture, the inner void space and the mechanical feature of nanomembranes can help to buffer the strain during lithiation/delithiation; the alternately stacked conductive rGO layers can protect the Si layers from excessive formation of SEI layers. As anodes for lithium-ion batteries, the sandwiched Si/rGO nanoarchitecture demonstrates long cycling life of 2000 cycles at 3 A g(-1) with a capacity degradation of only 3.3% per 100 cycles.

High-defect hydrophilic carbon cuboids anchored with Co/CoO nanoparticles as highly efficient and ultra-stable lithium-ion battery anodes

We propose an effective strategy to engineer a unique kind of porous carbon cuboid with tightly anchored cobalt/cobalt oxide nanoparticles (PCC–CoOx) that exhibit outstanding electrochemical performance for many key aspects of lithium-ion battery electrodes. The host carbon cuboid features an ultra-polar surface reflected by its high hydrophilicity and rich surface defects due to high heteroatom doping (N-/O-doping both higher than 10 atom%) as well as hierarchical pore systems. We loaded the porous carbon cuboid with cobalt/cobalt oxide nanoparticles through an impregnation process followed by calcination treatment. The resulting PCC–CoOx anode exhibits superior rate capability (195 mA h g−1 at 20 A g−1) and excellent cycling stability (580 mA h g−1 after 2000 cycles at 1 A g−1 with only 0.0067% capacity loss per cycle). Impressively, even after an ultra-long cycle life exceeding 10000 cycles at 5 A g−1, the battery can recover to 1050 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1, perhaps the best performance demonstrated so far for lithium storage in cobalt oxide-based electrodes. This study provides a new perspective to engineer long-life, high-power metal oxide-based electrodes for lithium-ion batteries through controlling the surface chemistry of carbon host materials.

Hierarchically Designed SiOx/SiOy Bilayer Nanomembranes as Stable Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries

Hierarchically designed SiOx /SiOy rolled-up bilayer nanomembranes are used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The functionalities of the SiO(x,y) layers can be engineered by simply controlling the oxygen content, resulting in anodes that exhibit a reversible capacity of about 1300 mA h g(-1) with an excellent stability of over 100 cycles, as well as a good rate capability.

Reinforcing Germanium Electrode with Polymer Matrix Decoration for Long Cycle Life Rechargeable Lithium Ion Batteries

Germanium is a promising anode material for lithium ion batteries because of its high theoretical specific capacity and low operation voltage. However, a significant challenge in using Ge-based anodes is the large volume variation during cycling that causes pulverization and capacity fade. Despite intense studies in the past decade, unsatisfactory cycling stability of the Ge-based electrodes still impedes their widespread applications. In this study, we demonstrate a high-performance electrode through the synergistic combination of a high-capacity Ge film grown on a three-dimensional current collector and an in situ formed poly(vinylidene fluoride)-hexafluoropropene/SiO2 protective layer. Specifically, the polymer matrix is in continuous contact with the surface of the Ge shell, which provides improved mechanical and ionic transport properties. As a highlight, we present impressive cycling stability over 3000 cycles at 1 C rate with a capacity retention as high as 95.7%. Furthermore, the LiCoO2-Ge full battery operates at an average voltage of 3.3 V at 0.5 C and maintains good electrochemical performance, suggesting great potential for applications in energy storage and conversion devices.