Power and energy performance of porous silicon carbide anode in lithium-metal battery

Abstract

Abstract Recently, silicon-based next-generation lithium batteries possessed the main core of storage devices to store reversibly electrical energy. For this issue, the interesting silicon and silicon carbide anodes have been synthesized via magnesiothermic reduction. The result of the X-ray diffraction confirms a crystallinity of 2 nm for SiC and 70 nm for silicon. The porous structure is characterized by FESEM and TEM analysis. The power and energy performance of silicon show the 420 W Kg−1 and 200 Wh Kg−1 in the first cycle at 125 mA g−1. While power and energy performance for SiC anode increase to 400 W Kg−1 and 350 Wh Kg−1 in the first cycle at 125 mA g−1. Moreover, at the highest current rate of 1.25 A g−1 specific power and energy for SiC anode become more than 3000 W Kg−1 and 130 Wh Kg−1 after 130th cycles. Furthermore, the electrolyte resistance and charge transfer resistance for SiC anode is measured to be 24.5 and 250 Ω. Nevertheless, the lithiation processes are controlled through the diffusion of Li+ ions because of a low diffusion coefficient of 6.54 × 10 - 19 cm2 s−1.