Near-Zero Volume Expansion Nanoporous Silicon as Anode for Li-ion Batteries

In this work, novel near-zero volume expanding Si-dominant electrodes are presented as promising anodes for next-generation Li-ion batteries. The electrodes contain micrometer-size nano-porous Silicon particles with a carefully tuned morphology and synthesized via a scalable and cost-effective route. Volume expansion during electrochemical Li-Si alloying/de-alloying is found to be almost completely suppressed. Bi-layer pouch cells manufactured with the abovementioned Si-anodes, having industrial relevant areal capacities (≥3 mAh cm −2 ), and LiNi 0.6 Mn 0.2 Co 0.2 O 2 cathodes, show indeed negligible volume expansion as demonstrated by operando dilatometric measurements during galvanostatic cycling and post-mortem SEM cross-sectional analysis.