Constructing 3D Interconnected Si/SiO<sub>x</sub>/C Nanorings from Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane
Xieji Lin, Xinjian Chen, Fan Zhang, Yue Dong, Xiaohong Chen, Ang Li, Huaihe Song
Abstract
Abstract Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a family of organic/inorganic hybrid materials with specific molecular symmetry, and shows great potential in the structural design of nanomaterials. Here, a “bottom‐up” strategy is designed to fabricate 3D interconnected Si/SiO x /C nanorings (NRs) via AlCl 3 ‐assisted aluminothermic reduction using dodecaphenyl cage silsesquioxane (T 12 ‐Ph) as the building block. In this process, AlCl 3 acts as both a liquid medium for reduction, and significantly as the catalyst to the cross‐linking of phenyl groups in T 12 ‐Ph. The obtained Si/SiO x /C NRs exhibits uniform diameter of ≈165 nm and well distribution of C and Si elements. The unique ring‐like structure of Si/SiO x /C NRs makes it have great application potential in the field of lithium ion batteries. Notably, Si/SiO x /C NRs exhibits superior high‐rate capacity and good cycle stability when used as anode for LIBs. More excitingly, Si/SiO x /C NRs can deliver a high reversible capacity of 517.9 mA h g −1 at ultra‐low temperature of −70 °C, and the capacity retention as high as ≈50% of that at 25 °C. This work not only broadens structural design of carbon‐based nanomaterials but also provides more possibilities for the application of POSS.