EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Silicon nanowires (Si NWs) have been identified as an excellent candidate material for replacement of graphite in anodes, allowing for a significant boost in the capacity and cycle-life of LIBs. The growth of these NWs on low surface area planar substrates has limited the ability to achieve high loading and mechanical robustness. Here, we demonstrate the grow of high-density Si NWs on a novel 3D interconnected network of binary-phase Cu-silicide nanofoam (3D CuxSiy NF) substrate. The as-formed 3D nanofoam facilitates uniform distribution of well-segregated and small-sized catalyst seeds, enabling dense growth of single-phase Si NWs with an areal-loading in excess of 1.0 mg cm–2. As an anode, the Si NWs@3D CuxSiy NF displays a stable areal capacity of ∼2.0 mAh cm–2 after 550 cycles. We further demonstrate that the 3D CuxSiy NF can be used as a current collector for direct growth of Al, Bi, Cu, In, Mn, Ni, Sb, Sn, and Zn seeded Si NWs, demonstrating the universal applicability of the anode architecture.