Scalable mesoporous silicon microparticles composed of interconnected nanoplates for superior lithium storage

Constructing micro-nano hierarchical porous structure is an effective strategy to solve key issues arising from the large volume change of silicon-based materials during cycling. Herein, we successfully obtain the mesoporous silicon microparticles composed of nanoplates driven from waste glass by the magnesiothermic reduction reaction. The two-dimensional nanoplates and abundant mesoporous structure in the microparticles not only effectively mitigate the mechanical strains caused by volume changes but also promote lithium ion diffusion. The silicon microparticles display outstanding lithium storage performance including extremely high first Coulombic efficiency (85.1%), remarkable reversible specific and volumetric capacities (1793 mAh g⁻¹ and 747 mAh cm⁻³ after 120 cycles at 200 mA g⁻¹, 1000 mAh g⁻¹ after 360 cycles at 500 mA g⁻¹) and impressive rate performance (1183.7 mA h g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹). Simultaneously, the corresponding electrode exhibits significantly less impedance build-up and smaller electrode thickness increase than that of commercial silicon nanoparticles. Furthermore, the scalable and cost-effective method makes it an attractive candidate for next generation lithium ion batteries anode materials.