A Free‐Standing Polyaniline/Silicon Nanowire Forest as the Anode for Lithium‐ion Batteries

• Published in: Chemistry, an Asian journal Vol. 17; no. 24; pp. e202200946 - n/a
• Main Authors: Eldona, Calvin, Hanif Hawari, Naufal, Haidar Hamid, Faiq, Dempwolf, Wibke, Iskandar, Ferry, Peiner, Erwin, Suryo Wasisto, Hutomo, Sumboja, Afriyanti
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 14.12.2022
• Subjects: Aniline; Chemical etching; Chemistry; Discharge; Electrochemical analysis; Lithium-ion batteries; lithium-ion battery; metal assisted chemical etching; nanostructure; Nanowires; PANI; Polyanilines; Silicon; Solid electrolytes; metal assisted chemical etching; PANI; nanostructure; silicon; lithium-ion battery
• ISSN: 1861-4728; 1861-471X
• DOI: 10.1002/asia.202200946

Despite its high theoretical capacity, silicon anode has limited intrinsic conductivity and experiences significant volume changes during charge‐discharge. To overcome these issues, facile metal‐assisted chemical etching and in‐situ polymerization of aniline are employed to produce a dense 1D polyaniline/silicon nanowire forest without noticeable agglomeration as a free‐standing anode for lithium‐ion batteries. This hybrid electrode possesses high cycling performance, delivering a stable capacity capped at 2 mAh cm−2 for 346 cycles of charge‐discharge. Maximum capacity of 2 mAh cm−2 is also achievable at high‐rate cell testing of 2 mA cm−2, which cannot be obtained by the anode with plain silicon wafer and silicon nanowire only. The introduction of polyaniline on the silicon nanowire is shown to reduce the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) resistance, stabilize the SEI layer, further alleviate the effect of volume changes, and boost the conductivity of the hybrid anode, resulting in the high electrochemical performance of the anode. A polyaniline/silicon nanowire forest has been synthesized by combining metal‐assisted chemical etching on a silicon wafer and in‐situ polymerization of aniline. The synergistic effect of one‐dimensional nanowire array with excellent conductivity and mechanical stability of polyaniline enables the high and stable electrochemical performance of the silicon‐based electrode for Li‐ion batteries application.