Simple preparation of Si/N-doped carbon anodes from photovoltaic industry waste for lithium-ion batteries

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2022-01, Vol.890, p.161792, Article 161792
• Main Authors: Ma, Yanchen, Huang, Aoming, Li, Yan, Jiang, Hongcheng, Zhang, Wen, Zhang, Li, Li, Linlin, Peng, Shengjie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anode; Anodes; Carbon; Carbon coating; Electrode materials; Electron transfer; Industrial wastes; Lithium; Lithium-ion batteries; Lithium-ion battery; Photovoltaics industry; Raw materials; Rechargeable batteries; Silicon
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.161792

•Silicon is obtained from photovoltaic industrial waste through simple purification.•N-doped carbon ensures fast charge transfer and structural stabilization.•Si/NC electrode has a high specific capacity both in half-cell and full-cell. Silicon (Si) is considered to be one of the most promising anode materials for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, the practical application of Si anode is still high cost and hindered by huge volume change. It is significant to produce high-performance Si anode of LIBs inexpensively. Herein, we report the Si/N-doped carbon (Si/NC) composite anode materials constructed by recycling Si waste from the photovoltaic industry as raw materials after simple purification and polydopamine (PDA)-derived carbon coating. The Si micro/nano-plates coated with the NC can facilitate electron transfer and inhibit the volume expansion of Si to stabilize the structure of composites. The resulting Si/NC electrode exhibits a high discharge capacity of 1139 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 over 200 cycles. Moreover, the full-cell (LiFePO4//Si/NC) presents excellent cycling performance (108 mAh g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 over 200 cycles). This work not only offers a reasonable solution for the acquirement of Si anode from the photovoltaic industry but also provides a new strategy for the preparation of anodes for the next generation of LIBs, which may bring great economic benefits.