Performance of n-type silicon/silver composite anode material in lithium ion batteries: A study on effect of work function matching degree

In this paper, two types of silicon(Si) particles ball-milled from n-type Si wafers, respectively, with resistivity values of 1 Ω·cm and 0.001 Ω·cm are deposited with silver(Ag). The Ag-deposited n-type 1-Ω·cm Si particles(nl-Ag) and Ag-deposited n-type 0.001-Ω·cm Si particles(n0.001-Ag) are separately used as an anode material to assemble coin cells,of which the electrochemical performances are investigated. For the matching of work function between n-type 1-Ω·cm Si(nl) and Ag, nl-Ag shows discharge specific capacity of up to 683 mAh·g~(-1) at a current density of 8.4 A·g~(-1), which is40% higher than that of n0.001-Ag. Furthermore, the resistivity of nl-Ag is lower than half that of n0.001-Ag. Due to the mismatch of work function between n-type 0.001-Ω·cm Si(n0.001) and Ag, the discharge specific capacity of n0.001-Ag is 250.2 mAh·g~(-1) lower than that of nl-Ag after 100 cycles.