Silicon-silicon oxide-carbon composites for lithium battery electrodes and methods for forming the composites

Patent · 05 January 2021

OSTI ID:1805362

Anguchamy, Yogesh Kumar; Deng, Haixia; Han, Yongbong; Masarapu, Charan; Kumar, Sujeet; Lopez, Herman A.

Composite silicon based materials are described that are effective active materials for lithium ion batteries. The composite materials comprise processed, e.g., high energy mechanically milled, silicon suboxide and graphitic carbon in which at least a portion of the graphitic carbon is exfoliated into graphene sheets. The composite materials have a relatively large surface area, a high specific capacity against lithium, and good cycling with lithium metal oxide cathode materials. The composite materials can be effectively formed with a two step high energy mechanical milling process. In the first milling process, silicon suboxide can be milled to form processed silicon suboxide, which may or may not exhibit crystalline silicon x-ray diffraction. In the second milling step, the processed silicon suboxide is milled with graphitic carbon. Composite materials with a high specific capacity and good cycling can be obtained in particular with balancing of the processing conditions.

• Research Organization: Zenlabs Energy, Inc., Fremont, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• DOE Contract Number: AR0000034
• Assignee: Zenlabs Energy, Inc. (Fremont, CA)
• Patent Number(s): 10,886,526
• Application Number: 13/917,472
• OSTI ID: 1805362
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English