Metal (Ni and Bi) coated porous silicon nanostructure, high-performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries with high capacity and stability

Herein, metal (nickel and bismuth) nanoparticles are supported on porous silicon flour (PSiF). Then they are proposed as high-performance anode materials for lithium ion battery. In this way, a facile procedure is introduced for the in-situ electroless assembling of nickel and bismuth nanoparticles on PSiF without using any reducing agent. The Metal@PSiF nanostructures with different Metal/Si ratio are prepared through the chemical reduction of the metals ions and oxidation of the surface of Si atoms, in a solution containing fluoride ions. The composition and morphological properties of the nanostructures are investigated using SEM, XRD, XPS and EDS. Also, galvanostatic charge-discharge and cyclic voltammetry are used to evaluate the electrochemical performance of the proposed anode materials. The synthesized Bi@PSiF nanostructure offers a specific capacity of 3245 mAh g(-1), at the 0.1 C rate while the Ni@PSiF shows a specific capacity of 2585 mAh g(-1) at the same C-rate. Both nanostructure still retains a specific capacity of about 2000 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles, which is more than five-times larger when it compared with graphite (372 mAh g(-1)). The obtained results confirm that the new nanostructures are an excellent candidate for anode material in advanced lithium-ion batteries with enhanced capacity and excellent columbic efficiency. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.