Scalable chemical prelithiation of SiO/C anode material for lithium-ion batteries

Chemical prelithiation effectively compensates for the initial capacity loss in the SiO/C anode material used in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but it is difficult to conduct outside of the glove box. The high basicity of the water-based slurry using the prelithiated SiO/C weakens the binder making the anode printing defective. The oxidation of the prelithiated SiO/C in air is another issue. Herein, a scalable prelithiation is developed using a quartz reactor, where the arene solution is significantly reduced and recycled. The homogenization and passivation using NF3 are conducted in the same reactor as well. With the prelithiated SiO/C, the initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of the half cell strikes from 80.4% to 93.2%, and the pH value of the slurry decreases from 11.94 to 11.11. The full cell using a LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 (NCM622) cathode and a graphite anode containing 21 wt% of the prelithiated SiO/C exhibits a high ICE of 88.6% and good retention of 96.1% after 200 cycles.