Electrochemical and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic sudy of early SEI formation and evolution on Si and Si@C nanoparticle-based electrodes

Antoine Desrues (1) , Eric de Vito (2) , Florent Boismain (1) , John P Alper (1) , Cédric Haon (3) , Nathalie Herlin-Boime (1) , Sylvain Franger (4)

1 LEDNA - Laboratoire Edifices Nanométriques
2 DTNM - Département des Technologies des NanoMatériaux
3 DEHT - Département de l'électricité et de l'hydrogène dans les transports
4 ICMMO - Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay

Carbon coatings can help to stabilize the electrochemical performance of high-energy anodes using silicon nanoparticles as the active material. In this work, the comparison of the behavior and chemical composition of the Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) was carried out between Si nanoparticles and carbon-coated Si nanoparticles (Si@C). A combination of two complementary analytical techniques, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), was used to determine the intrinsic characteristics of the SEI. It was demonstrated that the SEI on Si particles is more resistive than the SEI on the Si@C particles. XPS demonstrated that the interface on the Si particles contains more oxygen when not covered with carbon, which shows that a protective layer of carbon helps to reduce the number of inorganic components, leading to more resistive SEI. The combination of those two analytical techniques is implemented to highlight the features and evolution of interfaces in different battery technologies.

Keywords: silicon; battery; Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS); X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)

Domains: Material chemistry

Antoine Desrues, Eric de Vito, Florent Boismain, John P Alper, Cédric Haon, et al.. Electrochemical and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic sudy of early SEI formation and evolution on Si and Si@C nanoparticle-based electrodes. Materials, 2022, 15 (22), pp.7990. ⟨10.3390/ma15227990⟩. ⟨cea-03868893⟩