摘要
Carbon fabric is proposed as the electrode support instead of Cu foil as the current collector in the fabrication of Si-anode, in order to prevent electrode pulverization during cell charge/discharge. Polyvinylpyrrolidone is used as a suitable dispersant to improve the anode slurry's compatibility with the carbon fabric and final uniform distribution of the anode materials. The anode with added dispersant exhibits a lower resistance, and the constructed cell presents a higher capacity than that without dispersant in the anode (3561 vs 2755 mAh g-1) in the first charge/discharge cycle under a current of 420 mA g-1. After charge/discharge for 150 cycles, the stress from repeated formation/deformation of the solid-electrolyte interface layer only breaks a part of the fibers in the carbon fabric, while acceptable structural integrity is maintained in the anode. Interestingly, the added dispersant enhances both the uniform distribution of nano-Si electrode materials and the anode's conductivity, while diminishing the fabric damage during charge/discharge cycles. This is attributed to the smaller, well-deagglomerated nano-Si particles that are better at sustaining the stress caused by cell charge/discharge, and also the binding force from the dispersant to reinforce the carbon fabric.