Growth of the Cycle Life and Rate Capability of LIB Silicon Anodes Based on Macroporous Membranes

This work investigated the possibility of increasing the cycle life and rate capability of silicon anodes, made of macroporous membranes, by adding fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) to the complex commercial electrolyte. It was found that FEC leads to a decrease in the degradation rate; for a sample without FEC addition, the discharge capacity at the level of Q(dch) = 1000 mAh/g remained unchanged for 220 cycles and the same sample with 3% FEC added to the electrolyte remained unchanged for over 600 cycles. FEC also improves the power characteristics of the anodes by 5–18%. Studies of impedance hodographs showed that in both electrolytes (with 0% and 3% FEC, respectively) the charge transfer resistance grows with an increasing number of cycles, while Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) parameters, such as its resistance and capacitance, show little change. However, the addition of FEC more than halves the overall system impedance and reduces the resistance of the liquid electrolyte and all current carrying parts as well as the SEI film and charge transfer resistances.