Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) are a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their high specific capacity. Achieving adequate mass loadings for binder-free Si NWs is restricted by low surface area, mechanically unstable and poorly conductive current collectors (CCs), as well as complicated/expensive fabrication routes. Herein, a tunable mass loading and dense Si NW growth on a conductive, flexible, fire-resistant, and mechanically robust interwoven stainless-steel fiber cloth (SSFC) using a simple glassware setup is reported. The SSFC CC facilitates dense growth of Si NWs where its open structure allows a buffer space for expansion/contraction during Li-cycling. The Si NWs@SSFC anode displays a stable performance for 500 cycles with an average Coulombic efficiency of >99.5%. Galvanostatic cycling of the Si NWs@SSFC anode with a mass loading of 1.32 mg cm-2 achieves a stable areal capacity of ≈2 mAh cm-2 at 0.2 C after 200 cycles. Si NWs@SSFC anodes with different mass loadings are characterized before and after cycling by scanning and transmission electron microscopy to examine the effects of Li-cycling on the morphology. Notably, this approach allows the large-scale fabrication of robust and flexible binder-free Si NWs@SSFC architectures, making it viable for practical applications in high energy density LIBs.
Keywords: fire-resistant anodes; flexible electrodes; high mass loading; silicon nanowires; stainless-steel fiber cloths.
© 2021 The Authors. Advanced Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.