Vault-like Bio-inspired Silicon Nanostructures for Optimization of Next Generation Anodes (VISiON)

Nanostructuring has been shown to be a promising solution to the issues of silicon-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

Although, the challenges regarding the excessive degradation of the solid electrolyte interphase, severe side reactions, and poor coulombic efficiency are main obstacles of commercializing nanostructures of silicon.

The project VISiON, propose a hierarchical structured silicon nanoparticles (NP) with a simple interfacial modification which tackle all these three problems.

The considered structure is inspired by simple encapsulation of silicon NPs using the already existing functional groups of the bio-based starch.

An ensemble of the hybrid Si-encapsulated by starch shell, provides a green synthesized active material, which can deliver higher capacities (~1100 mAh/g), and the same time provides a practical and cheap method for large-scale exploitation of these materials.