High performance carbon nanotube–Si core–shell wires with a rationally structured core for lithium ion battery anodes

Abstract

Core–shell Si nanowires are very promising anode materials. Here, we synthesize vertically aligned carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with relatively large diameters and large inter-wire spacing as core wires and demonstrate a CNT–Si core–shell wire composite as a lithium ion battery (LIB) anode. Owing to the rationally engineered core structure, the composite shows good capacity retention and rate performance. The excellent performance is superior to most core–shell nanowires previously reported.