Constructing 3D Interconnected Si/SiOx /C Nanorings from Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane.

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a family of organic/inorganic hybrid materials with specific molecular symmetry, and shows great potential in the structural design of nanomaterials. Here, a "bottom-up" strategy is designed to fabricate 3D interconnected Si/SiOx /C nanorings (NRs) via AlCl3 -assisted aluminothermic reduction using dodecaphenyl cage silsesquioxane (T12 -Ph) as the building block. In this process, AlCl3 acts as both a liquid medium for reduction, and significantly as the catalyst to the cross-linking of phenyl groups in T12 -Ph. The obtained Si/SiOx /C NRs exhibits uniform diameter of ≈165 nm and well distribution of C and Si elements. The unique ring-like structure of Si/SiOx /C NRs makes it have great application potential in the field of lithium ion batteries. Notably, Si/SiOx /C NRs exhibits superior high-rate capacity and good cycle stability when used as anode for LIBs. More excitingly, Si/SiOx /C NRs can deliver a high reversible capacity of 517.9 mA h g-1 at ultra-low temperature of -70 °C, and the capacity retention as high as ≈50% of that at 25 °C. This work not only broadens structural design of carbon-based nanomaterials but also provides more possibilities for the application of POSS.