Fabrication of hollow carbonaceous nanospheres and their applications in lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

This paper presents a facile method for preparing hollow carbonaceous nanospheres for use in advanced Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Core–shell-structured silica@resin/silica nanosphere composites were used as the starting material. Hollow carbon nanospheres with a high specific surface area, i.e., 1389 m2 g−1, and C/SiC composite nanospheres composed of 24.4 wt.% amorphous carbon and 75.6 wt.% cubic β-SiC were obtained. Electrochemical measurements showed that the hollow carbon nanospheres delivered a reversible capacity of 553.5 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles, which is higher than the theoretical capacity of graphite. A C/SiC composite nanosphere electrode gave a reversible capacity of 296 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles. The results show that these nanospheres are promising candidates for use in LIB anodes.