A lithium-ion battery based on LiFePO4 and silicon nanowires

• Silicon nanowires were grown by vapor–liquid–solid mechanism.
• The Si nanowires were coupled with a LiFePO4 cathode to make a Li-ion cell.
• The cell showed a good capacity retention with increasing discharging currents.
• The cell capacity rapidly declined with the increase of the cycle number.

In this paper the preparation and electrochemical characterization of silicon nanowires for using as the anode of a lithium-ion battery are reported. The nanowires were synthesized by CVD and characterized by SEM. The nanostructured material was used as an electrode in a lithium cell and its electrochemical properties were investigated by galvanostatic charge–discharge cycles at various charge rates. The electrode was coupled with a LiFePO4 cathode to fabricate a lithium-ion battery and the battery performance evaluated as a function of the discharge rate and cycle number.