Sea Sand-Derived Magnesium Silicide as a Reactive Precursor for Silicon-Based Composite Electrodes of Lithium-Ion Battery

- We investigated Mg2Si as a reactive precursor for Si-based composite materials for Li-ion battery.
- Porous Si@C can be synthesized from naturally abundant sea sand using the reaction between sea sand-derived Mg2Si and Na2CO3.
- The reaction mechanism of the reaction between sea-sand derived Mg2Si and Na2CO3 to form porous Si@C was investigated.
- Porous Si@C exhibits a large reversible capacity approximately 1000 mAh g−1 even after 200 cycles.

Recently, it has been clearly elucidated that nanostructured Si-based composites hybridized with protective and conductive materials can present enhanced electrochemical performance as anodes for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). One of remaining issues is to develop a sustainable and economic method to synthesize these composites on a large scale for industrial applications. Herein, we introduce a modified magnesiothermic reaction route to prepare the aforementioned Si-based composite electrodes using sea-sand derived Mg2Si as a reactive precursor. Owing to its reducibility and lability, Mg2Si can readily reduce group IVA oxides, such as Na2CO3, SiO2, GeO2, and SnO2, resulting in macroporous Si surrounded by the reduced forms of the counter reactants (C, Si, Ge, and Sn, respectively), some of which can be electrochemically attractive. Notably, the porous Si-based composite can be synthesized by a simple solid state reaction, so simplicity and scalability can be obtained. Also, the sea sand precursor is naturally-abundant; hence this process can be cost-effective, scalable, and sustainable. Porous Si@C composite can be synthesized from the modified magnesiothermic reaction using a sea sand-derived Mg2Si precursor, showing a specific capacity of 1000 mAh/g at 200th cycle. Potentially this process can be used for practical synthesis of Si-based composites.

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