Recent progress and perspectives on silicon anode: Synthesis and prelithiation for LIBs energy storage

Abstract The ever-increasing environmental/energy crisis as well as the rapid upgrading of mobile devices had stimulated intensive research attention on promising alternative energy storage and conversion devices. Among these devices, alkali metal ion batteries, such as lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) had attracted increasing research attention due to its several advantages including, environmental friendliness, high power density, long cycle life and excellent reversibility. It had been widely used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and large power grids et ac. Silicon-based (silicon and their oxide, carbides) anodes had been widely studied. Its several advantages including low cost, high theoretical capacity, natural abundance, and environmental friendliness, which shows great potential as anodes of LIBs. In this review, we summarized the recently progress in the synthetic method of silicon matrix composites. The empirical method for prelithiation of silicon-based materials were also provided. Further, we also reviewed some novel characterization methods. Finally, the new design, preparation methods and properties of these nano materials were reviewed and compared. We hoped that this review can provide a general overview of recent progress and we briefly highlighted the current challenges and prospects, and will clarify the future trend of silicon anode LIBs research.