Kinetically accelerated molten-salt synthesis of porous silicon/carbon core-shell anodes for lithium batteries.
- 1Department of Chemical Engineering (BK21 FOUR Graduate Program), Dong-A University Busan 49315 Republic of Korea [email protected] +82-51-200-7728 +82-51-200-7718.
Abstract
Developing silicon anodes with high energy and rate capability for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is limited by severe volume expansion and sluggish kinetics. Herein, we demonstrate a low-temperature molten-salt aluminothermic reduction (MS-ATR) process using Al-AlCl₃ system to synthesize porous silicon (pSi) particles from a high-silica zeolite precursor below 300 °C. Reduction kinetics modeled via the Ginstling-Brounstein (GB) 3D diffusion model demonstrate that a dynamic rotary reactor configuration (MS-ATR-d) significantly enhances mass transfer and reduction rates compared to a static setup (MS-ATR-s). At 270 °C, MS-ATR-d achieves a 1.7-fold higher rate constant than MS-ATR-s, resulting in substantially increased pSi yield. The apparent activation energy for MS-ATR-d is estimated at 86.0 kJ mol⁻¹, notably lower than that for magnesiothermic reductions. The resulting pSi replicates the precursor morphology, featuring primary silicon nanoparticles (30-50 nm) and a distinct mesoporous network. After carbon coating, the core-shell pSi/C composite anode demonstrates an initial charge capacity of 1320 mAh g⁻¹ at 50 mA g⁻¹, a superior initial coulombic efficiency of 84.6%, and excellent long-term cycling stability, vastly outperforming commercial solid silicon nanoparticle/carbon (SiNP/C) control. These results establish MS-ATR-d process as an efficient, kinetically enhanced pathway to high-performance silicon anodes.
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BibTeX
@article{kim2026kinetically,
title = {{Kinetically accelerated molten-salt synthesis of porous silicon/carbon core-shell anodes for lithium batteries.}},
author = {Hyeonbin Kim and Eunjeong Hong and Seung Hyeok Chu and Jung Kyoo Lee},
journal = {RSC advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1039/d6ra07184h},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42904245},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Kinetically accelerated molten-salt synthesis of porous silicon/carbon core-shell anodes for lithium batteries.
AU - Hyeonbin Kim
AU - Eunjeong Hong
AU - Seung Hyeok Chu
AU - Jung Kyoo Lee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - RSC advances
DO - 10.1039/d6ra07184h
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42904245
AB - Developing silicon anodes with high energy and rate capability for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is limited by severe volume expansion and sluggish kinetics. Herein, we demonstrate a low-temperature molten-salt aluminothermic reduction (MS-ATR) process using Al-AlCl₃ system to synthesize porous silicon (pSi) particles from a high-silica zeolite precursor below 300 °C. Reduction kinetics modeled via the Ginstling-Brounstein (GB) 3D diffusion model demonstrate that a dynamic rotary reactor configuration (MS-ATR-d) significantly enhances mass transfer and reduction rates compared to a static setup (MS-ATR-s). At 270 °C, MS-ATR-d achieves a 1.7-fold higher rate constant than MS-ATR-s, resulting in substantially increased pSi yield. The apparent activation energy for MS-ATR-d is estimated at 86.0 kJ mol⁻¹, notably lower than that for magnesiothermic reductions. The resulting pSi replicates the precursor morphology, featuring primary silicon nanoparticles (30-50 nm) and a distinct mesoporous network. After carbon coating, the core-shell pSi/C composite anode demonstrates an initial charge capacity of 1320 mAh g⁻¹ at 50 mA g⁻¹, a superior initial coulombic efficiency of 84.6%, and excellent long-term cycling stability, vastly outperforming commercial solid silicon nanoparticle/carbon (SiNP/C) control. These results establish MS-ATR-d process as an efficient, kinetically enhanced pathway to high-performance silicon anodes.
SN - 2046-2069
ER -