Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped rGO-siloxene nanocomposite anode for Li-ion storage

Abstract

In this work, we synthesize a 3D nitrogen-doped rGO (NrGO)-siloxene aerogel nanocomposite using a simple and low-cost hydrothermal process and demonstrate its use as an anode material for lithium-ion storage. The meso-macroporous structure of the N-doped rGO (NrGO) aerogel enhances the electrical conductivity and accommodates the volume expansion of siloxene sheets during cycling. Thereby, the NrGO-siloxene (NGSil) composite shows improved kinetics and structural stability resulting in an excellent reversible discharge capacity of 472.07 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1, which is higher than those of the hydrothermally treated siloxene (HT-Sil, 31.59 mA h g−1) and the undoped rGO-siloxene (GSil, 296.33 mA h g−1). Moreover, the NGSil composite exhibits a good rate performance (177 mA h g−1 at 6 A g−1), and excellent long-term cycling stability (243.12 mA h g−1 after 1000 cycles) with a steady coulombic efficiency of 99.5% at 1 A g−1.