Facile Fabrication of Highly Porous 3D Sponge‐Like Si@C Composites as High‐Performance Anode Materials for Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract In this work, we synthesized highly porous 3D sponge‐like mesoporous (MP)‐Si@C composites using mass‐scalable method. The optimized MP−Si@C 1 composite electrode, provided a reversible capacity of 1887 mAh g −1 after 100 discharge−charge cycles with capacity retention of 83 % at the rate of 0.1 C. At high C‐rate the MP−Si@C 1 anode provided reversible capacity of 910 mAh g −1 after 1000 cycles. The MP−Si@C 1/LCO full cell provide a discharge capacity of 1515 mAh g −1 and it works well for 100 cycles. This outstanding electrochemical behavior of the MP−Si@C 1 composite electrode was accredited to the exclusive structure of interconnected Si nanoparticles and the presence of the outer C thin layer. The carbon layer served as a shield, an effective buffer layer to house the extreme volume expansion issue of Si during continuous cycling. The excellent performance of the MP−Si@C 1 composite demonstrated its high applicability as potential anode material for next‐generation LIBs.