Large areal capacity all-in-one lithium-ion battery based on boron-doped silicon/carbon hybrid anode material and cellulose framework

Weijun Zhou; Jizhang Chen; Xinwu Xu; Xiang Han; Minfeng Chen; Li Yang; Shin-Ichi Hirano

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.011

Large areal capacity all-in-one lithium-ion battery based on boron-doped silicon/carbon hybrid anode material and cellulose framework

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2022 Apr 15:612:679-688. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.011. Epub 2022 Jan 6.

Authors

Weijun Zhou¹, Jizhang Chen², Xinwu Xu³, Xiang Han¹, Minfeng Chen¹, Li Yang⁴, Shin-Ichi Hirano⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China.
² College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China; Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: chenjizhang@njfu.edu.cn.
³ College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China; Co-Innovation Center of Efficient Processing and Utilization of Forest Resources, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China. Electronic address: xucarpenter@aliyun.com.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China; Hirano Institute for Materials Innovation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China. Electronic address: liyangce@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁵ Hirano Institute for Materials Innovation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.

PMID: 35032925
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.01.011

Abstract

Si, featuring ultra-large theoretical specific capacity, is a very promising alternative to graphite for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). However, Si suffers from intrinsic low electrical conductivity and structural instability upon lithiation, thereby severely deteriorating its electrochemical performance. To address these issues, B-doping into Si, N-doped carbon coating layer, and carbon nanotube conductive network are combined in this work. The obtained Si/C hybrid anode material can be "grown" onto the Cu foil without using any binder and delivers large specific capacity (2328 mAh g^-1 at 0.2 A g^-1), great rate capability (1296.8 mAh g^-1 at 4 A g^-1), and good cyclability (76.7% capacity retention over 500 cycles). Besides, a cellulose separator derived from cotton is found to be superior to traditional polypropylene separator. By using cellulose as both the separator host and the mechanical skeleton of two electrodes, a flexible all-in-one paper-like LIB is assembled via a facile layer-by-layer filtration method. In this all-in-one LIB, all the components are integrated together with robust interfaces. This LIB is able to offer commercial-level areal capacity of 3.47 mAh cm^-2 (corresponding to 12.73 mWh cm^-2 and 318.3 mWh cm^-3) and good cycling stability even under bending. This study offers a new route for optimizing Si-based anode materials and constructing flexible energy storage devices with a large areal capacity.

Keywords: Boron doping; Cellulose separator; Integrated configuration; Li-ion batteries; Si anode materials.