Investigation to Synthesis and Electrochemistry of the Ternary Si-CuO-NiO System as Anode Materials in Lithium-ion Batteries via an Affordable Manufacturing High-Energy Ball-Milling Method

NiO was introduced into Si-CuO alloys as anode materials in LIBs by an affordable manufacturing high-energy ball-milling method the first time. The study found the ball-milled Si-CuO-NiO composites could effectively suppress the formation of the Li3.75Si phase during the lithiation process. With increasing the proportion of NiO, there was obvious improvement on cycle stability and coulombic efficiency. As a comparison, the ball-milled material of Si-CuO (23.5%) with the same mass fraction of the metal oxide as Si-CuO-NiO (15%) was also synthesized but showed much worse electrochemical performance. In addition, the ball-milled Si-CuO-NiO (15%) also had a certain degree of thermal stability and when coating carbon layer at 800 ℃, the capacity retention could be ~ 92% after 100 cycles at 0.2C.