Clusters of silicon have energising applications

The team, from Stanford University and the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, achieved their results by packing clusters of silicon nanoparticles in carbon to make the electrode.

‘While a couple of challenges remain, this design brings us closer to using silicon anodes in smaller, lighter and more powerful batteries for products like cell phones, tablets and electric cars,’ said Yi Cui, an associate professor at Stanford and SLAC who led the research, reported in Nature Nanotechnology.

‘Experiments showed our…anode operates at 97 per cent capacity even after 1,000 cycles of charging and discharging, which puts it well within the desired range for commercial operation.’

Silicon anodes could store 10 times more charge than the graphite anodes in today’s rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but a significant challenge remains in that silicon swells and falls apart during battery charging. Similarly, it reacts with the battery’s electrolyte to form a coating that covers the anode and degrades its performance.