Mechanistic insight into the impact of dry-state prelithiated SiOx thin-film anode toward extremely fast-charging and long-term stability

Silicon suboxides (SiO_x) have achieved partial success in commercialization as high-capacity anode materials to replace graphite because of optimal electrochemical properties over silicon. Unfortunately, the further development has been sluggish, jeopardizing the urgent need of green energy. The daunting challenges to tackle include low initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) and low charging rate due to poor electron and ionic conductivity. In the context of thin film microbattery, we propose to precisely control the chemical states of SiO_x films through varying sputtering power followed by dry-state pre-lithiation through Li-metal thermal evaporation, superior to the current pre-lithiation approaches for SiO_x thin-film anodes. We addressed the leading roles of the surface chemical states of the as-deposited SiO_x in the formation of the high ionic conductive Li₄SiO₄ phase as the pre-solid electrolyte interphase during the proposed dry-state prelithiation process. Ultimately, the prelithiated SiO_x successfully mitigated the most confronted issues as low ICE and C-rate limitation, achieving an unprecedented rate performance of 72.8 % at 20 C, and ultra-long-cycle retention of 54.2 % over 5000 cycles at 10 C. These results strongly prove that appropriate pre-lithiation provides tremendous advantages to SiO_x thin film anode not only in prolonging electrode stability but also promoting a significant fast-cycling.