Advances in Metal and Metal Oxide Modified Silicon Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Review

Lithium-ion battery is the secondary battery with the highest energy density among rechargeable and dischargeable batteries. Not only that, it also has outstanding advantages such as long cycle life, small mass and volume, and environmental friendliness, and is commonly used in electronic products, military aviation field, as well as power vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems. Among the many anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, silicon has a high theoretical specific capacity of up to 4200 mA h g^–1 and a low embedded lithium level (about 0.4 V), making it an ideal anode material for lithium batteries. However, the low electronic conductivity of silicon (about 10^–5 S/cm) and its alloying and de-alloying reactions during charging and discharging have led to large volume expansion and electrode pulverization. In this paper, the latest research progress of silicon anode material modification methods for lithium-ion batteries is sorted out, and the elaboration mainly includes the improvement of the battery performance through the preparation of nanosilicon, carbon capping, metal or metal oxide capping, mesoporous or multicontrolled silicon, and addition of binder, and the outlook of the metal modification of silicon anode materials is also given.