Influence of Glucose Derivatives on Ball-Milled Si for Negative Electrodes with High Area Capacity in Lithium-Ion Batteries

Glucose modification and carbonization on ball-milled Si for negative electrodes with high area capacity and long cycle stability in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are studied. Different from carbon-coated Si, glucose modification forms Si–O–C ligands in the Si surface. Such a Si–O–C ligand is supposed to possess high affinity to Li chelation and thus facile lithiation/delithiation processes in the Si surface. A preglucose high-energy mechanical milling (HEMM) treatment results in a highly reactive dangling bond and local roughness in the Si surface. It substantially increases the density of Si–O–C and thus enables a high specific weight and area capacity of 2960 mAh g–1 and 5.4 mAh cm–2 at a coulombic efficiency of 90.0% in the first delithiation process. An important finding is that such a glucose modification results in performances of the Si negative electrode at 2045 mAh g–1 (3.7 mAh cm–2) in a reliability test after 100 cycles. Considering mass production yields, such a high area capacity and long cycle stability reveal that our proposed glucose modification is a promising treatment in the commercialization of Si materials in LIBs.