Piezoelectric-driven self-accelerated anion migration for SiOX-C/PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 with durable lithium storage performance

Abstract

Silicon oxides (SiOX) based materials with great specific capacity and suitable working potential have caused widespread concern. During alloying process, the volume expansion of SiOX is approximately 200%, which limits its practical application for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). For the purpose of surmounting the shortcomings of large volume change, a lot of efforts have been made, such as regulating the structure and morphology of active materials, incorporating with other conductive materials, and matching the suitable battery systems. However, to date, the volume expansion of SiOX anode in the cycle process cannot be absolutely avoided due to its intrinsic characteristics. In this work, these seeming drawback is creatively exploited to increase the electrochemical performance of SiOX materials. PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) is taken advantage as functional addition agent, which is based on piezoelectric effect elicited by volume expansion of SiOX. Specifically, the large volume change of SiOX-C could be transmitted to PZT particles, thus resulting in a polarization process. Then the piezoelectric potential is generated, so as to promote Li + mobility. SiOX-C/PZT was synthesized via a sol-gel method and high energy ball-milling procedure. Accordingly, SiOX-C/PZT anode exhibits excellent the superior cycling capability, it retains 570 mA h g-1 after 200 cycles at 400 mA g-1. Besides, it also has stable long-cycling life (430 mA h g-1 after 500 cycles at 500 mA g-1 with a retention of 75%). The relevant results demonstrate that PZT piezoelectric material can favorably increase the electrochemical property of SiOX anode materials.