Coupling modification strategy with carbon coating and MXene conductive additive enables high-performance silicon anode for lithium-ion batteries

Silicon (Si) is living with severe pulverization of active materials, continuous breakage of structure in electrode, and turbulent solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) because of huge volume variation during (dis)charging. Herein, from the view of the active material and electrode structure, the innovative dual modification that combines carbon coating and Ti 3 C 2 T x as conductive agents is adopted, generating more than simply pooling their efforts together. The resultant Si@C-M electrodes exhibit an excellent rate capacity of 1538.1 mA h g −1 at 5 A g −1 and maintain capacity retention of 80.5 % with 1084.8 mA h g −1 after 300 cycles at 1 A g −1 . The sterling performance is thanks to the stable electrode provided by the coating-carbon and Ti 3 C 2 T x which not only reduces interface impedance, and enhances Li-ion diffusion, but suppresses the volume variation of electrodes as well effectively as verified by in situ and ex situ characterization. Moreover, utilizing the Ti 3 C 2 T x as the conductive agent is beneficial to forming benign SEI rich in LiF and Li 2 O. This work provides a potential strategy and exploits new routes for the practical utilization of high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LiBs).