Solid Polymer Electrolyte Based Lithium-ion Battery with Composite Silicon Anode

Coupling of Silicon (Si) with carbon (C) realizes a favorable combination of the two materials properties, such as high lithiation capacity of Si and excellent mechanical and conductive properties of C, making silicon/carbon composite (Si/C) ideal candidates for Lithium-ion batteries’ (LIBs) anodes. Solid polymer electrolytes (SPE) can resolve the safety issues associated with conventional liquid electrolytes while offering mechanical stability and thin film manufacturability. In this study, composite silicon with different proportions of silicon and graphite was used as anode’s active material and polyethylene oxide was used as electrolyte. We demonstrated that the composite silicon anode combined with SPE can run over 200 cycles with 89% of capacity retention. We utilized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, morphology, surface conductivity, electrochemical characterization to investigate compatibility of composite silicon anode with SPE. Significant long cycles can be achieved in solid polymer electrolyte-based battery compared to traditional LIBs at high current rate.