Synthesis of silicon-carbon black composite as anode material for lithium ion battery

Abstract

Silicon has been attracting attention as an anode material that can be used for the design of high-capacity lithium ion batteries (LIB). However, the long-term cycling performance of silicon is limited owing to exfoliation from the current collector, resulting from volumetric expansion upon alloying with lithium in the charging process. However, carbon black is an agglomerate of primary particles that form a network and can incorporate a sufficient void space between network structures to accommodate the volumetric expansion of silicon. In this study, we propose the possibility of preventing the volume expansion and exfoliation of silicon by capturing silicon nanoparticles in the void space of the carbon black network. A silicon-carbon black composite material with this structure was successfully synthesized by solution plasma processing.