Si nanowires/Cu nanowires bilayer fabric as a lithium ion capacitor anode with excellent performance

Abstract A light and binder-free bilayer fabric electrode composed of silicon nanowires and copper nanowires for lithium-ion capacitors (LICs) is reported. A lithium ion capacitor is proposed employing pre-lithiated silicon/copper nanowire fabric and activated carbon as the anode and the cathode, respectively. These LICs show remarkable performance with a specific capacitance of 156 F g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 , which is approximately twice of that of activated carbon in electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), and still exhibit a fine specific capacitance of 68 F g −1 even at a high current density of 20 A g −1 . At a low power density of 193 W kg −1 , the Si/Cu fabric//AC LIC can achieve high energy density of 210 W h kg −1 . As the power density is increased to 99 kW kg −1 , the energy density still remains at 43 W h kg −1 , showing the prominent rate performance.