High-Temperature Magnesiothermic Reduction Enables HF-Free Synthesis of Porous Silicon with Enhanced Performance as Lithium-Ion Battery Anode

Porous silicon-based anode materials have gained much interest because the porous structure can effectively accommodate volume changes and release mechanical stress, leading to improved cycling performance. Magnesiothermic reduction has emerged as an effective way to convert silica into porous silicon with a good electrochemical performance. However, corrosive HF etching is normally a mandatory step to improve the electrochemical performance of the as-synthesized silicon, which significantly increases the safety risk. This has become one of the major issues that impedes practical application of the magnesiothermic reduction synthesis of the porous silicon anode. Here, a facile HF-free method is reported to synthesize macro-/mesoporous silicon with good cyclic and rate performance by simply increasing the reduction temperature from 700 °C to 800 °C and 900 °C. The mechanism for the structure change resulting from the increased temperature is elaborated. A finite element simulation indicated that the 3D continuous structure formed by the magnesiothermic reduction at 800 °C and 900 °C could undertake the mechanical stress effectively and was responsible for an improved cyclic stability compared to the silicon synthesized at 700 °C.