Factors influencing cycle-life of full Li-ion cell built from Si/C composite as anode and conventional cathodic material

Practical aspects of silicon-based Li-ion battery manufacturing have been discussed in this work. The specially designed T-type full-cell was assembled using the laboratory-made Si/C composite as anodic and commercial LiNiCoMnO2 as cathodic materials. When cycled in a half-cell with the fixed potential range the Si/C-based anode showed high and stable reversible capacity of about 600 mAh g−1 and low irreversible capacity, below 100 mAh g−1. Advanced tests, performed at various cathode/anode mass ratios with simultaneous monitoring of individual electrode potentials, showed that the perfect cycling stability measured for half-cell cannot be achieved in the real battery configuration. A non-coherent coulombic efficiencies of anode and cathode were pointed out as a main reason of fast capacity decay. Several practical aspects of the Si/C-based Li-ion system, like rate capability and long-term cycleability, were estimated in the prototype CR2032 battery of nominal capacity of 50 mAh and compared to the commercial graphite-based cell.