Supplementary MaterialsSupplementary Information srep44838-s1. portable electronics by consumers and professionals alike has not only pushed the limits of electronic devices but also has concurrently increased the energy demand of the devices. From smartphones, tablets and up to electric vehicles and solar farms, the need for high energy rechargeable batteries is greater than ever. Rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely applied in daily applications such as portable electronic devices and low-emission environmental friendly electric vehicles (EVs) because of their relatively high balanced specific energy and power, lengthy cycling balance and low making price1,2,3. Several extra merits enable lithium-ion electric battery (LIB) to become an ideal way to obtain energy for industrial portable electronics. First of all, lithium naturally may be the lightest steel, and it gets the most electropositivity. Subsequently, LIBs demonstrate better protection performance equate to Li steel batteries and it provides a balanced huge volumetric energy thickness (Wh/L) and gravimetric energy thickness (Wh/kg) concurrently1,2,3. Nevertheless, the energy thickness of regular graphite-based lithium ion electric battery cells is significantly limited as the stoichiometric limit of Li+ intercalation in LiC6 restricts the theoretical capacitance worth of graphite to become about 372?mAh g?1 (about 837?mAh cm?3)4. Though carbon structured nanomaterials such as for example 1D CNT5,6, 2D graphene7,8, and 3D turned on and template-derived carbon9 possess recently been discovered to boost the anode capacity, the anode capacity is still mostly limited to be below 1000?mAh g?1. Also, silicon (Si) is considered and has proven to be a more promising anode material due to its highest known theoretical capacity value of 3572?mAh g?1 corresponding to the formation of Li15Si4 phase under ambient temperature10,11. Streptozotocin biological activity However, silicon-based anodes suffer huge volume expansion, Streptozotocin biological activity upwards of up to 300% during the lithiation process which induces uneven stress-strain distribution within the particle and causes pulverization and loss of active material. Streptozotocin biological activity To remedy the aforementioned issue of anode pulverization, significant academical and industrial Streptozotocin biological activity efforts have been made on the synthesis of nano silicon, development of novel binder systems and the design of novel nanostructured Si anode materials3,12,13,14,15,16,17. 3D porous Si structures demonstrate stable cycling due to the large electrolyte accessible surface area, shorter Li-ion diffusion length, and high electron conductivity18,19,20,21,22. However, the aforementioned porous nano silicon is mostly produced via etching of Si wafers or other doped Si materials, which require very expensive raw materials and high processing cost. Another detrimental factor that limits the application of porous and nano silicon anodes in full cell applications is usually its high surface area. The formation and build up of a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer on large surface area Si materials consumes lithium, which inturn causes huge irreversible capacity loss. Previously, we reported the synthesis of monodisperse porous silicon nanospheres (MPSSs) via a simple and scalable hydrolysis process with subsequent surface-protected magnesiothermic reduction21. The monodisperse and spherical nature of the MPSSs allows for a homogeneous stress-strain distribution within the particle during lithiation and delithiation, which dramatically improves the electrochemical stability. However, like most other porous nano silicon materials, MPSSs have relatively larger irreversible capacities because of the relatively larger surface area21,22. In addition, the incompatibility of conventional micrometer level carbon black within the MPSS anodes causes the MPSSs have the low reversible capacity and poor coulombic efficiency under high rates (1?C or 2?C). Though in the previous study, Rabbit polyclonal to DGCR8 the addition of a certain amount of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) had been verified to be effective to improve the rate performance and cycling stability without changing the active materials ratio. The high cost of CNTs and poor coulombic efficiency of MPSS still limit their application in battery full cells21. In this work, we report an innovative and facile synthesis of monodisperse silicon and carbon nanocomposite spheres.