Researchers of Xi'an Jiaotong University have made new progress in the structure design of lithium battery electrode materials

Lithium Grid News: Lithium battery electrode materials will be accompanied by volume expansion/contraction during the process of lithium insertion/desorption, and this volume effect often leads to material failure. Therefore, the structural stability of the electrode material during the charge-discharge cycle has a vital impact on the battery's capacity, rate, and cycle life.

Based on the phenomenon that silica (SiO2) as a filler can improve the mechanical properties of composite materials, the research team of Professor Wang Hongkang from the team of Niu Chunming, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, designed and successfully prepared a SiO2 reinforced Porous Sb/C fiber composite material. The silicon source (ethyl silicate), antimony source (antimony trichloride) and carbon source (polyvinylpyrrolidone) are prepared into a fiber structure by electrospinning, and then a porous carbon fiber coated with SiO2 and Sb nanometers is formed through heat treatment. The unique structure of the particles. The introduction of SiO2 greatly enhanced the overall structural stability of the fiber. As a negative electrode material for lithium ion batteries, the obtained SiO2/Sb/C porous fiber electrode shows excellent electrochemical performance in both half-cell and full-cell tests. Carbon fiber not only improves the conductivity of the electrode material, but its porous structure effectively absorbs the volume change of SiO2 and Sb during the lithium insertion/desorption process. The characterization by in-situ and ex-situ electron microscopy further reveals the structural stability of the material in the process of lithium insertion/desorption. The idea of u200bu200benhancing the electrode material structure proposed in this work is to use the SiO2 reinforcement effect (Silica-Reinforcement Effect) to simultaneously achieve the dual improvement of electrode structure stability and lithium storage performance, and the method is versatile (Materials Today Energy 2016, 1– 2, 24-32; Nanoscale 2016, 8, 7595-7603).

The research results were published online in ACS, an international authoritative journal in the field of nanotechnology, entitled 'Encapsulating Silica/Antimony into Porous Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers with Robust Structure Stability for High-Efficiency Lithium Storage' Nano (impact factor 13.942). The School of Electrical Engineering of Xi'an Jiaotong University is the first to complete the paper, and Wang Hongkang is the first author and corresponding author of the paper. The collaborators include Professor Mi Shaobo from School of Telecommunications of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Professor Zhang Qiaobao from Xiamen University, and Professor Andrey Rogach from City University of Hong Kong.

The research work has been awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University 'Young Top Talent Support ProgramAnalyze and test the support of the sharing center.