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

Abstract 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/SiO_x/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/SiO_x/C NRs exhibits uniform diameter of ≈165 nm and well distribution of C and Si elements. The unique ring‐like structure of Si/SiO_x/C NRs makes it have great application potential in the field of lithium ion batteries. Notably, Si/SiO_x/C NRs exhibits superior high‐rate capacity and good cycle stability when used as anode for LIBs. More excitingly, Si/SiO_x/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.