Prelithiated Silicon Nanowires as an Anode for Lithium Ion Batteries

Silicon is one of the most promising anode materials for the next generation high energy lithium ion battery (LIB), while sulfur and some other, lithium-free materials have recently, shown high promise as cathode materials. To make a full battery out of them, either the cathode or the anode needs to be prelithiated. Here, we present a method for prelithiating a silicon nanowire (SiNW) anode by a facile self-discharge mechanism. Through a time dependence study, we found that 20 min of prelithiation loads similar to 50% of the full capacity Into the SiNWs. Scanning election microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies show that the nanostructure of SiNWs is maintained after prelithiation. We constructed a full battery using our prelithiated SiNW anode with a sulfur cathode. Our work provides a protocol for pairing lithium-free electrodes to make the next-generation high-energy LIB.