Bottom-up synthesis of mesoporous germanium as anodes for lithium-ion batteries

Duihai Tang; Huan Yu; Jiawei Zhao; Wentao Liu; Wenting Zhang; Sijia Miao; Zhen-An Qiao; Jiangxuan Song; Zhen Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.024

Bottom-up synthesis of mesoporous germanium as anodes for lithium-ion batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2020 Mar 1:561:494-500. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.024. Epub 2019 Nov 9.

Authors

Duihai Tang¹, Huan Yu², Jiawei Zhao³, Wentao Liu³, Wenting Zhang², Sijia Miao², Zhen-An Qiao⁴, Jiangxuan Song⁵, Zhen Zhao⁶

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China. Electronic address: tangduihai@163.com.
² Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China.
³ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China. Electronic address: songjx@xjtu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China. Electronic address: zhaozhen@synu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31733839
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.11.024

Abstract

A series of mesoporous germanium materials were synthesized via the self-templating method. Germanium tetrachloride and sodium potassium alloy were utilized as germanium precursor and reducing agent, respectively. The by-products, NaCl and KCl, could be considered as the in-situ templates. The characterization results showed that the mesopores could be obtained, when the salts were removed by water washing. Moreover, the crystalline germanium could also be achieved, when the calcination temperature is as high as 500 °C. However, when the calcination temperatures are 300 °C, the as-received mesoporous germanium materials are amorphous. When evaluated as anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the obtained mesoporous germanium exhibits outstanding cycling stability, showing a high reversible specific capacity of 803 mA h g^-1 after 100 cycles, as well as enhanced rate performance (655 mA h g^-1 at 1 C rate).

Keywords: Bottom-up synthesis; Lithium ion batteries; Mesoporous germanium; Self-templating method; Sodium potassium alloy.