Drop-casting preparation of a binder-free SiOx anode with micron-sized SiOx particles for high-performance lithium-ion batteries

Sub-valent silicon oxide (SiO x ) is a promising next-generation anode material in lithium-ion batteries. However, SiO x still suffers large volume expansion during the lithiation, resulting in deteriorated battery performance. Herein, we report a low-cost and easy-to-scale-up method to prepare a SiO x -based anode (named as SiO x @G-Ni) by drop-casting the slurry of asphalt, micron-sized SiO x powder, nickel salt and carbon nanotubes onto a Cu foil and subsequent thermal pyrolysis. The obtained electrode consists of a rigid graphenic carbon network that is embedded with micron-sized SiO x , nickel nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes. The SiO x @G-Ni electrode delivers a specific charge capacity of 1061 mA h g −1 at 0.08 A g −1 , and a capacity retention rate of 86.7 % after cycled 500 times at 1.6 A g −1 . The full battery SiO x @G-Ni||LiCoO 2 reaches a capacity retention rate of 79.3 % after 250 cycles at 0.5 C. The method employed in this work could be used for the preparation of the SiO x -based anode for high-performance lithium-ion batteries. • Preparation of binder-free micron-sized SiO x electrodes by drop-casting method. • Utilize the catalytic effect of nickel particles to form a multilayer graphenic network. • The SiOx@G-Ni electrode delivers great half-cell and full-cell cycle performance.