Issue 7, 2017

Effect of Si content on structure and electrochemical performance of ternary nanohybrids integrating Si nanoparticles, N-doped carbon shell, and nitrogen-doped graphene

Abstract

Hybridizing graphene with silicon (Si) is effective in developing high-performance Si-based anodes. However, the effect of Si content on the structure and electrochemical performance of these nanohybrids has not been extensively studied. Herein, a type of ternary Si/NC/NG nanohybrid with varying Si content was synthesized via a scalable, ecofriendly, and facile solution-mixing and carbonization process. In this nanostructure, Si nanoparticles were sheathed with N-doped carbon (NC) and the NC-wrapped Si nanoparticles were confined by nitrogen (N)-doped graphene (NG). The focus of this work was to determine how the Si content in the ternary nanohybrid affects its structure and electrochemical performance. SEM and TEM observations revealed that all Si nanoparticles were embedded in graphene nanosheets at low Si content while some aggregated and bare Si nanoparticles were observed at high Si content. Despite the simple preparation procedure, the ternary nanohybrid with an optimal Si content (83.9 wt%) delivered a high reversible capacity of 1210 mA h gāˆ’1 after 100 cycles at 0.5 A gāˆ’1, which outperforms most Si-based anodes in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) reported so far. The findings presented in this paper represent a new criterion for the design of Si-based anodes with optimized electrochemical performance.

Graphical abstract: Effect of Si content on structure and electrochemical performance of ternary nanohybrids integrating Si nanoparticles, N-doped carbon shell, and nitrogen-doped graphene

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Nov 2016
Accepted
30 Dec 2016
First published
16 Jan 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 4209-4215

Effect of Si content on structure and electrochemical performance of ternary nanohybrids integrating Si nanoparticles, N-doped carbon shell, and nitrogen-doped graphene

D. Ji, Z. Yang, L. Xiong, H. Luo, G. Xiong, Y. Zhu and Y. Wan, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 4209 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA26994J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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