Low-cost urchin-like silicon-based anode with superior conductivity for lithium storage applications

Poor rate and cycling performance are the most critical drawbacks for Si-based anodes on account of their inferior conductivity and colossal volumetric expansion during lithiation/delithiation. Here we report the fabrication of structurally-integrated urchin-like Si anode, which provides prominent structural stability and distinguished electron and ion transmission pathways for lithium storage. The inexpensive solid Si waste from organosilane industry after acid-washed and further ball-milling serves as the pristine Si-source in this work. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are in-situ grown outside Si microparticles, resulting in an urchin-like structure (Si/CNTs). The optimized Si/CNTs presents ascendant invertible capacity and rate performance, achieving up to 920 mAh g(-1) beyond 100 cycles at 100 mA g(-1), and a capacity of 606.2 mAh g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) after long cycling for 1000 cycles. The proposed scalable synthesis can be adopted to advance the performance of other electrode materials with inferior conductivity and enormous volume expansions during cycling. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.