RESUMEN
Silicon has emerged as the most promising high-capacity material for lithium-ion batteries. Waste glass can be a potential low cost and environmentally benign silica resource enabling production of nanosized silicon at the industry level. Windshields are generally made of laminated glass comprising two separate glass bonded together with a layer of polyvinyl butyral sandwiched between them. Herein, silicon/carbon nanocomposites are fabricated from windshields for the first time via magnesiothermic reduction and facile carbonization process using both waste glass and polyvinyl butyral as silica and carbon sources, respectively. High purity reduced silicon has unique 3-dimensional nanostructure with large surface area. Furthermore, the incorporation of carbon in silicon enable to retain the composite anodes highly conductive and mechanically robust, thus providing enhanced cycle stability.
RESUMEN
Vanadium(IV) dioxide (VO2) has drawn attention as one of the most attractive electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), hence, much research has been conducted in various sectors in this field. However, to date, most of this research has focused on the VO2(B) polymorph, whereas electrochemical information on the use of VO2(M) in LIB electrodes is insufficient. Thus, it is worthwhile to explore the possibility of using VO2(M) for LIB electrode application, and to investigate whether its electrochemical properties can be improved. In this study, VO2(M) nanoparticles, incorporated with a reduced graphene oxide composite (NP-VO2/rGO), were successfully synthesized via a sol-gel assisted hydrothermal process by the chemical reduction of V2O5 gel, using hydrazine as the reducing agent. The particle size was less than 50 nm regardless of the presence of rGO. Also, NP-VO2/rGO exhibited a specific capacity of 283 mA h g(-1) up to the 200(th) cycle at a current density of 60 mA g(-1), indicating its potential to be used in LIBs.