Entwistle, J.E., Booth, S.G. orcid.org/0000-0001-7643-4196, Keeble, D.S. et al. (5 more authors) (2020) Insights into the electrochemical reduction products and processes in silica anodes for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Advanced Energy Materials, 10 (43). 2001826. ISSN 1614-6832
Abstract
The use of silica as a lithium‐ion battery anode material requires a pretreatment step to induce electrochemical activity. The partially reversible electrochemical reduction reaction between silica and lithium has been postulated to produce silicon, which can subsequently reversibly react with lithium, providing stable capacities higher than graphite materials. Up to now, the electrochemical reduction pathway and the nature of the products were unknown, thereby hampering the design, optimization, and wider uptake of silica‐based anodes. Here, the electrochemical reduction pathway is uncovered and, for the first time, elemental silicon is identified as a reduction product. These insights, gleaned from analysis of the current response and capacity increase during reduction, conclusively demonstrated that silica must be reduced to introduce reversible capacity and the highest capacities of 600 mAh g−1 are achieved by using a constant load discharge at elevated temperature. Characterization via total scattering X‐ray pair distribution function analysis reveal the reduction products are amorphous in nature, highlighting the need for local structural methods to uncover vital information often inaccessible by traditional diffraction. These insights contribute toward understanding the electrochemical reduction of silica and can inform the development of pretreatment processes to enable their incorporation into next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | green chemistry; silicon; sustainability |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Engineering and Physical Science Research Council EP/P006892/1; EP/R041822/1; EP/L016818/1; EP/N001982/2 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 12 Aug 2020 08:16 |
Last Modified: | 26 Jan 2022 13:44 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/aenm.202001826 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:164245 |