A Convenient Approach Towards Synthesis of Hollow Silicon Nanorods for Lithium-Ion Batteries Anode

Abstract

Silicon (Si) is a highly promising anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) offering a theoretical gravimetric capacity of ~4200 mAhg -1 . Silicon nanorods with specially designed strain-engineered topologies have attracted a lot of attention. However, these distinctive morphologies have been unappealing for commercial LIB systems due to the expensive nature of the synthesis processes employed to synthesize the silicon nanorods as well as the subpar yield and inadequate loading densities. In this work, we present a novel and straightforward synthesis method using inexpensive precursors and use of the simple hydrothermal method fabricating scalable amounts of hollow silicon nanorods (h-SiNTs) and carbon-coated silicon nanorods (h-Si@C NTs) architectures using magnesium hydroxide nanotubes as the sacrificial template. The h-Si and h-Si@C NTs, display first discharge and charge capacities of ~1031 and ~1372, ~572 and ~645 mAhg -1 , respectively at a current rate of 75 mA g -1 . Importantly, even after 500 cycles, the h-Si and h-Si@C NTs exhibit remarkable Coulombic efficiency of ~99.6 and ~98%, respectively, at a current rate of 400 mA g -1 , rendering them suitable for LIBs anodes.