Morphology- and Porosity-Tunable Synthesis of 3D Nanoporous SiGe Alloy as a High-Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anode

Abstract

The lithium storage performance of silicon (Si) can be enhanced by being alloyed with germanium (Ge) because of its good electronic and ionic conductivity. Here, we synthesized a three-dimensional nanoporous (3D-NP) SiGe alloy as a high-performance lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode using a dealloying method with a ternary AlSiGe ribbon serving as the precursor. The morphology and porosity of the as-synthesized SiGe alloy can be controlled effectively by adjusting the sacrificial Al content of the precursor. With an Al content of 80%, the 3D-NP SiGe presents uniformly coral-like structure with continuous ligaments and hierarchical micropores and mesopores, which leads to a high reversible capacity of 1158 mA h g^-1 after 150 cycles at a current density of 1000 mA g^-1 with excellent rate capacity. The strategy might provide guidelines for nanostructure optimization and mass production of energy storage materials.