In a study published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Jonas Dickmanns and Moritz Bock from the Chair of Technical Electrochemistry at TUM present a comparative full-cell analysis of silicon–carbon (Si/C) composite, graphite, and microscale silicon anodes paired with NCA cathodes. The work addresses a key challenge in lithium-ion battery development: increasing energy density while maintaining fast-charging capability and long cycle life.

While silicon offers substantial capacity advantages over graphite, its large volume expansion and rapid degradation have limited its widespread application. This study investigates a novel Si/C composite anode, in which silicon is infiltrated into a carbon host structure, and benchmarks its electrochemical performance against state-of-the-art graphite and silicon-dominant anodes under realistic full-cell conditions.

🔗 The full article is available open access:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ae2958

💡 Key highlights of the work:

• Synthesis and electrochemical evaluation of a silicon–carbon composite anode material.
• Full-cell comparison of graphite, silicon-dominant, and Si/C anodes with NCA cathodes.
• Demonstration of enhanced fast-charging capability for silicon-containing anodes without lithium plating.
• Significantly improved cycle life of the Si/C anode (~650 cycles to 80% capacity retention) compared to silicon-dominant anodes, while maintaining substantial energy density gains.
• Projected stack-level gravimetric and volumetric energy density increases of ~7% and ~16% relative to graphite anodes.