Custom-Engineered Silicon Nanowires for Higher Energy-Density Li-Ion Batteries

摘要

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the state-of-the-art electrochemical energy storage technology for portable and electric vehicles applications. Currently there is a critical urge to increase their power and energy density substantially. Graphite is presently the most used anode material in commercial LIBs, but this material offers a rather low theoretical capacity of 372 mAh g-1, as well as limited Li-ion intercalation kinetics. Silicon, thanks to its non-toxicity, high abundance, and its much greater specific capacity of 3579 mAh g-1, could provide the required leap forward in performance. Nevertheless, its successful implementation has been hindered by several challenges and, especially, its extensive volume variation upon de /lithiation associated with irreversible SEI losses, which eventually results in rapid capacity fading. ENWIRES, a French start-up, is an advanced materials company which develops and manufactures Silicon Nanowire (Si-NW) based composites to enhance any carbonaceous anode material to accelerate the mass adoption of xEVs. Our material, SiBoost™ brings strong gains in cyclability and (dis)charge rate capabilities compared to other forms of silicon (silicon nanoparticles, porous silicon). SiBooost™ is designed to be ready for use and to facilitate the substitution of conventional graphite anodes, offering at the same time better performances. We will present extended cycle life data of our SiBoost™ as a part of lithium-ion anode active material and some preliminary results of this material in half-cell and full-cell formats using Ni-rich NMC as cathode.