TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of the pillar size on the electrochemical performance of laser-induced silicon micropillars as anodes for lithium-ion batteries
AU - Yang, Xueyuan
AU - Tachikawa, Naoki
AU - Katayama, Yasushi
AU - Li, Lin
AU - Yan, Jiwang
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This study has been financially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research, 17K18833 (2017–2019), and the Leverhulme Trust (UK), Grant Reference Number VP1-2018-022.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the authors.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Silicon micropillars with tunable sizes are successfully fabricated on copper foils by using nanosecond-pulsed laser irradiation and then used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The size of the silicon micropillars is manipulated by using different slurry layer thicknesses ranging from a few microns to tens of microns. The effects of the pillar size on electrochemical properties are thoroughly investigated. The smaller the pillars, the better the electrochemical performance. A capacity of 1647 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C current rate is achieved in the anode with the smallest pillars, with 1215, 892, and 582 mAh g-1 at 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 C, respectively. Although a significant difference in discharge capacity is observed in the early period of cycling among micropillars of different sizes, this discrepancy becomes smaller as a function of the cycle number. Morphological studies reveal that the expansion of micropillars occurred during long-term cycling, which finally led to the formation of island-like structures. Also, the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase film obstructs Li+ diffusion into Si for lithiation, resulting in capacity decay. This study demonstrates the importance of minimizing the pillar size and optimizing the pillar density during anode fabrication.
AB - Silicon micropillars with tunable sizes are successfully fabricated on copper foils by using nanosecond-pulsed laser irradiation and then used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The size of the silicon micropillars is manipulated by using different slurry layer thicknesses ranging from a few microns to tens of microns. The effects of the pillar size on electrochemical properties are thoroughly investigated. The smaller the pillars, the better the electrochemical performance. A capacity of 1647 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C current rate is achieved in the anode with the smallest pillars, with 1215, 892, and 582 mAh g-1 at 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 C, respectively. Although a significant difference in discharge capacity is observed in the early period of cycling among micropillars of different sizes, this discrepancy becomes smaller as a function of the cycle number. Morphological studies reveal that the expansion of micropillars occurred during long-term cycling, which finally led to the formation of island-like structures. Also, the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase film obstructs Li+ diffusion into Si for lithiation, resulting in capacity decay. This study demonstrates the importance of minimizing the pillar size and optimizing the pillar density during anode fabrication.
KW - Anode
KW - Lithium-ion batteries
KW - Microstructure
KW - Selective laser melting
KW - Silicon micropillars
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U2 - 10.3390/app9173623
DO - 10.3390/app9173623
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072276716
VL - 9
JO - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
JF - Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
SN - 2076-3417
IS - 17
M1 - 3623
ER -