Boosting the overall specific capacity of SiO electrodes for lithium-ion batteries using a multifunctional carbon cloth current collector†

Improving the overall specific capacity of electrodes is more crucial than increasing the specific capacity of active materials to create high-energy lithium-ion batteries. This study proposes a novel approach of coating high-capacity active materials on current collectors with capacity-contributing ability to produce high-performance electrodes with excellent overall specific capacity. Using this approach, a series of SiO/carbon cloth composite electrodes (SiO@W0CC) were constructed by simply coating the amorphous SiO material on the surface of a commercially available W0S1011 hydrophilic carbon cloth (W0CC). This hydrophilic carbon cloth possesses amazing multiple functions, including conducting electricity as a current collector, contributing capacity, improving the adhesion and distribution of SiO materials on its surfaces with its hydrophilic groups, and reducing the electrode expansion rate during the cyclic testing by its three-dimensional network structure. Therefore, the as-fabricated SiO@W0CC electrode exhibits significantly superior performance compared to composite electrodes fabricated by coating SiO on commercial current collectors such as a hydrophobic carbon cloth, a carbon paper, and copper foil. Moreover, the optimal SiO@W0CC electrode outperforms most similar electrodes in terms of the overall specific capacity output and exhibits promising potential as a high-capacity electrode for future lithium-ion batteries.