A silica carbon composite as anode for lithium-ion batteries with a large rate capability: experimental and theoretical studies

,E.P.M. LEIVA; G. LENER; M. OTERO; A. SIGAL; BARRACO, D.E.

Bologna

Congreso; 69th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry,; 2018

International Society of Electrochemistry

New generations of materials are necessary to provide practical and economical solutions for electrode fabrication in lithium ion batteries. To this end, in the present work we propose a negative electrode based on a SiO2/C interconnected composite able to charge/discharge at high current regimes while maintaining a very good capacity. In order to have a better understanding of the phenomena that occur in the charge/discharge process, we combined experimental techniques (XPS, DRX, EIS, etc.) with theoretical calculations based on DFT to obtain the thermodynamics of the formation of the reaction products as a function of the cell potential. These results were combined with our experiments and results from the literature to demonstrate the different reactions that could occur. In this way, an easy to fabricate anode is presented, which can be charged/discharged in a few minutes. The present material provides a superior performance compared with analogous materials from the literature and may thus be an important tool for obtaining practical solutions in both stationary and mobile electrical devices.