ABSTRACT
Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is considered to be one of the most important energy storage and conversion technologies with prominent advantages of high energy and power densities, which have witnessed large-scale application in portable electronic devices, communication facilities, stationary energy storage, and ever-enlarging markets of electrically powered vehicles. A carbon shell was first coated on the silica, followed by selective etching of silica to create the space required for expansion of silicon (Si) during cycling. The carbon shells in this composite were designed to be porous by using dopamine as carbon source and triblock copolymer poly-block-poly-block-poly as a pore-forming surfactant, thus facilitating diffusion of magnesium through the pore channels and following magnesiothermic reduction of the inner silica "yolk". In the series of images, the silicon particles are observed to expand within the space of the outer carbon shell.
