Silicon nanowire growth on carbon cloth for flexible Li-ion battery anodes

Binder and conductive additive-free Si nanowires (NWs) grown directly on the current collector have shown great potential as next generation Li-ion battery anodes. However, low active material mass loadings and consequentially low areal capacities have remained a challenge in their development. Herein, we report the high-density growth of Si NWs on carbon cloth (CC) for use as Li-ion battery anodes. The NW growth reactions were carried out using a modified, glassware-based solvent vapor growth (SVG) process. Optimized growth conditions were applied to CC substrates to generate flexible Si NW anodes for Li-ion batteries. Battery testing revealed high areal charge and discharge capacities (>2 mAh/cm²) compared to Si NWs grown on stainless steel (SS) substrates (∼0.3 mAh/cm²) and stable long-term cycling with 80% capacity retention after 200 cycles. The findings reported herein represent a significant advancement in the field in terms of achievable areal capacity enabled by a low-cost glassware-based system.