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Silicon oxide (SiO x ) materials show promising potential as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. However, the development of SiO x materials has been significantly limited by their intrinsic disadvantages, including poor mechanical properties, low conductivity, and limited cycling capability. Herein, we report a facile and cost-effective synthesis method to develop SiO x nanoparticles anchored on graphene aerogel (SiO x @GA) from naturally abundant attapulgite (ATP) clay, which exhibits significant potential for lithium-ion batteries. Through extensive characterizations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we identify that clay-derived SiO x with a small particle size is grafted on defective graphene through forming the oxygen bridge, which allows efficient electron transfer from conductive graphene nanosheets to insulator SiO x . Furthermore, strong interactions can also prevent the over-reduction of SiO x on GA, allowing it to combine the advantages of silicon and silicon oxides to suppress the volume expansion and increase the overall stability of the anode materials. As a result, the lithium-ion batteries with the SiO x @GA anode deliver an excellent electrochemical performance with a high specific capacity of 602 mAh g –1 and prolonged durability for over 1200 cycles at 1 A g –1 . This work provides a practical and viable strategy to utilize natural resources for developing large-scale and low-cost SiO x -based anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries.
Bao et al. (Sat,) studied this question.