Synthesis of C/SiC Mixtures for Composite Anodes of Lithium-Ion Power Sources

Abstract

Nowadays, research aimed at the development of materials with increased energy density for lithium-ion batteries are carried out all over the world. Composite anode materials based on Si and C ultrafine particles are considered promising due to their high capacity. In this work, a new approach for carbothermal synthesis of C/SiC composite mixtures with SiC particles of fibrous morphology with a fiber diameter of 0.1–2.0 μm is proposed. The synthesis was carried out on natural raw materials (quartz and graphite) without the use of complex equipment and an argon atmosphere. Using the proposed method, C/SiC mixture as well as pure SiC were synthesized and used to manufacture anode half-cells of lithium-ion batteries. The potential use of the resulting mixtures as anode material for lithium-ion battery was shown. Energy characteristics of the mixtures were determined. After 100 cycles, pure SiC reached a discharge capacity of 180 and 138 mAh g−1 at a current of C/20 and C, respectively, and for the mixtures of (wt%) 29.5C–70.5 SiC and 50Si–14.5C–35.5SiC discharge capacity of 328 and 400 mAh g−1 at a current of C/2 were achieved. The Coulombic efficiency of the samples during cycling was over 99%.