Basic Characterization and Sputtering Processing of Diatom‐Based Anode Materials

Abstract

AbstractSilicon‐based anode materials are advantageous because of its high specific capacity, rich resources and appropriate lithium deintercalation potential. However, it is also limited by some disadvantages including large volume expension, poor electronic conductivity and low Initial Coulomb Efficiency(ICE). Benefitting from the original hierarchical porous structure of diatom and amorphous framework of SiO2, we explore the diatoms cultured on a large scale as the anode materials of lithium batteries. Herein, we obtain a suitable diatom‐based anode material with particle diameter D50 4.065 μm, BET specific surface area 228.28 m2/g and biomass of carbon approximately 25 %, while it successfully solves the problems of volume expansion and electronic conductivity. Furthermore, after facile sputtering processing, we successfully introduced metallic elements into the diatom‐based anode. The elements include 3.40 % of Al, 0.75 % of Ti, 10.40 % of Ni, etc. The charge‐dischare results show that the introduction of both Al and Ti lead to performance improvement in some extend.