High-performance flexible nanoporous Si-carbon nanotube paper anodes for micro-battery applications

Nanoporous Si has been grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition on a free-standing carbon nanotube (CNT) paper sheet for micro-battery anodes. The Si deposition shows the conformal coverage on the CNT paper, and the Si-CNT paper anodes demonstrate high areal capacity of ~1000 uAh/cm2 at a current density of 54 uA/cm2, while, 69% of its initial capacity is preserved when the current density is increased by a factor 10. Excellent stability without capacity decay up to 1000 cycles at a current density of 1080uA/cm2 is also demonstrated. After bending along the diameter of the circular paper disc many times, the Si-CNT paper anodes preserve the same morphology, indicating that nanoporous Si-CNT paper anodes can find its application for flexible micro-batteries.