Protective coatings on silicon particles and their effect on energy density and specific energy in lithium ion battery cells: A model study

Protective coating on silicon particles is a strategy reported in literature to improve capacity retention of Sicontaining lithium ion batteries. Up to date, the impact of the coating on the cell energy density and specific energy is not considered and guidelines for coating design are missing. In this paper a model is proposed to fill this gap. The model depicts how energy density and specific energy of lithium ion cells based on a Si-graphite composite electrode change in function of coating type, thickness and silicon weight fraction in the negative electrode. Volume changes during lithiation-delithiation and corresponding electrolyte displacement are also considered. Energy density depends on the ratio of coating thickness to silicon particle dimension and weight fraction of silicon in the electrode. Specific energy depends - marginally - also on the coating type. As a case study silicon spherical particles of 200 nm diameter are considered. For a 10 nm coating, the maximum energy density gain vs. state of art graphite negative electrodes is 13%, obtained with 40% weight fraction of silicon in the negative electrode. Above 60 nm thickness no improvement can be obtained vs. state of art graphite negative electrodes.