Industrial waste micron-sized silicon use for Si@C microspheres anodes in low-cost lithium-ion batteries

As the energy demands of our society increase, more and more high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are required to satisfy them. Silicon-based anodes are very promising for future electrical energy storage equipment. However, their commercial applications are limited by their expensiveness and the detrimental volume expansion during the battery cycling. This work describes the fabrication of low-cost silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) by high-energy mechanical milling (HEMM) using industrial waste micron-sized Si sheets as the initial material. The produced SiNPs were encapsulated by carbon microspheres derived from sucrose. Carbon-coated SiNPs ([email protected]) were incorporated as LIB anodes, which delivered high specific capacity (equal to 948 mAh g−1) even after 500 cycles at 0.5C. Even the full-cell with the prelithiated [email protected] microsphere-based anode and the Li(Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3)O2 cathode exhibited very high energy density (equal to 439.8 Wh Kg−1) and 90% capacity retention after 300 cycles. We believe that the recycling and utilization of the solid industrial waste might play a crucial role in the next-generation energy storage applications based on low-cost Si LIB anodes.