NANOPOROUS COPPER–SILICON COMPOSITE PREPARED BY CHEMICAL DEALLOYING AS ANODE MATERIAL FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES

A novel and simple method has been developed to prepare the Cu-Si composite as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Nanoporous Cu-Si composite with pore sizes of 1~30 nm was prepared by dealloying the melt-spun Al-Cu-Si-Ce ribbons in a 5 wt.% HCl solution. Electrochemical tests revealed that the nanoporous Cu-Si electrodes exhibited highly reversible capacity of 2317 mAhg^-1 and retained a capacity of 1030 mAhg^-1 over 20 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performance is attributed to the unique porous structure of the Cu-Si composite. Our results demonstrate that this novel composite is a promising anode candidate for high-capacity rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.