High Capacity Silicon Anodes Enabled by MXene Viscous Aqueous Ink
Chuanfang Zhang, Sang‐Hoon Park, Andrés Seral‐Ascaso, Sebastian Barwich, Niall McEvoy, Conor S. Boland, Jonathan N. Coleman, Yury Gogotsi, Valeria Nicolosi
Abstract
Utilization of Li-ion chemistry to store the energy electrochemically can address the ever-increasing demands from both portable electronics and hybrid electrical vehicles. This chapter shows that two-dimensional titanium carbide or carbonitride nanosheets, known as MXenes, can be used as a conductive binder for silicon electrodes produced by a simple and scalable slurry-casting technique without the need of any other additives. Traditionally, electrode additives are made of dual components based on a conductive agent. Si powders were ground with MXene aqueous inks to give concentrated, homogenous and viscous slurry, which can be coated onto Cu foil using an industry-compatible slurry-casting technique without adding any polymeric binders or CB. MXene nanosheets well wrap the Si particles, forming a point-to-plane contact and improving the electrochemical performance, unlike the point-to-point contact between the nSi and CB particles.