Affiliation:
1. Ioffe Institute Russian Academy of Sciences Politekhnicheskaya st. 26 Saint Petersburg 194021 Russia
2. Institute of Macromolecular Compounds Bolshoy pr. 31 Saint‐Petersburg 199004 Russia
Abstract
The properties of lithium‐ion battery (LIB) anodes fabricated from nanoscale silicon Si and polyaniline (PANI) as a binder are reported. PANI is prepared by in situ polymerization of aniline in the presence of phytic acid, which serves both as dopant and as a gel‐forming agent. PANI pellets obtained by dry compression are used to investigate the morphology and to measure the resistivity of PANI and Si/PANI composites. The anodes are fabricated using the slurry technique. Their properties as a function of precursor ratio are studied in the half‐cell cells by charge–discharge characteristics, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic lifetime. It is shown that stable cycling (>350 cycles at a current of 300 mA g−1) is inherent only to thin Si/PANI layers with composite loading <0.7 mg cm−2. The discharge capacity in this case is as high as 500–800 mAh g−1.