Facile fabrication of hollow structured Si-Ni-C nanofabric anode for Li-ion battery.

Hollow structured Si-Ni-C composite nanofabric was fabricated by electrospinning combined with thermal treatment. The hollow structure was obtained by calcining the precursory Si-NiO-C nanofabric under Ar atmosphere without using any sacrificial material. The resultant hollow structure could accommodate the volume effect of Si during Li-ion insertion and extraction. The NiO was reduced to Ni simultaneously with the calcination, which could increase the conductivity of the nanofabric. The hollow Si-Ni-C nanofabric formed a freestanding conductive structure which can be directly used as electrode for Li-ion batteries. The obtained self-supported anode delivered a capacity of 622 mAh/g after 100 cycles. The anode also presented a stable rate performance at 2000 mA/g. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]