Nanocomposites of silicon and carbon derived from coal tar pitch: Cheap anode materials for lithium-ion batteries with long cycle life and enhanced capacity

From energy and environmental consideration, an industrial waste product, coal tar pitch (CTP), is used as the carbon source for Si/AC composite. We exploited a facile sintering method to largely scale up Si/amorphous carbon nanocomposite. The composites with 20 wt.% silicon with PVdF binder exhibited stable lithium storage ability for prolonged cycling. The composite anode delivered a capacity of 400.3 mAh g−1 with a high capacity retention of 71.3% after 1000 cycles. Various methods are used to investigate the reason for the outstanding cyclability. The results indicate that the silicon nanoparticles are wrapped by amorphous SiOx and AC in Si/AC composite. This uniform structure is very favorable to lithium storage, the SiOx and AC layers can supply sufficient conductivity and strong elasticity to suppress the stress resulting from the reaction of Si with Li during charge/discharge process.