Surface and Interface Engineering of Silicon-Based Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Silicon is one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries because of the highest known theoretical capacity and abundance in the earth' crust. Unfortunately, significant breathing effect during insertion/deinsertion of lithium in the continuous charge-discharge processes causes the seriously structural degradation, thus losing specific capacity and increasing battery impedance. To overcome the resultant rapid capacity decay, significant achievements has been made in developing various nanostructures and surface coating approaches in terms of the improvement of structural stability and realizing the long cycle times. Here, the recent progress in surface and interface engineering of silicon-based anode materials such as core-shell, yolk-shell, sandwiched structures and their applications in lithium-ion batteries are reviewed. Some feasible strategies for the structural design and boosting the electrochemical performance are highlighted. Future research directions in the field of silicon-based anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries are summarized.