Lithium–silicon battery
Silicon-based subclass of lithium-ion battery technology
Lithium–silicon batteries are lithium-ion batteries that employ a silicon-based anode and lithium ions as the charge carriers. Silicon-based materials, generally, have a much larger specific energy capacity: for example, 3600 mAh/g for pristine silicon. The standard anode material graphite is limited to a maximum theoretical capacity of 372 mAh/g for the fully lithiated state LiC6.
Silicon's vast volume change (approximately 400% based on crystallographic densities) when lithium is inserted, along with high reactivity in the charged state, are obstacles to commercializing this type of anode. Commercial battery anodes may have small amounts of silicon, boosting their performance slightly. The amounts are closely held trade secrets, limited as of 2018 to, at most, 10% of the anode. Lithium-silicon batteries also include cell configurations where silicon is in compounds that may, at low voltage, store lithium by a displacement reaction, including silicon oxycarbide, silicon monoxide, or silicon nitride.
History
The first laboratory experiments with lithium-silicon materials took place in the early to mid-1970s.
Silicon-graphite composite electrodes
Silicon carbon composite anodes were first reported in 2002 by Yoshio. Studies of these composite materials have shown that the capacities are a weighted average of the two end members (graphite and silicon).
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