Development of nanostructured Ge/C anodes with a multistacking layer fabricated via Ar high-pressure sputtering for high-capacity Li+-ion batteries

To realize high-capacity Ge anodes for next-generation Li+-ion batteries, a multilayer anode with a C(top)/Ge(middle)/C(bottom) structure was developed, where nanostructured amorphous Ge (a-Ge) and amorphous-like carbon films with a grain size of 10–20 nm were deposited sequentially by high-pressure Ar sputtering at 500 mTorr. Compared with the a-Ge anode, the C(top)/a-Ge(middle)/C(bottom) multistacking layer anode showed improved capacity degradation for repeated lithiation/delithiation reactions and achieved a high capacity of 910 mAh g−1 with no capacity fading after 90 cycles at a C-rate of 0.1.