Homogenization-Enabled Fabrication of Silicon/Carbon Anodes from Photovoltaic Wire-Cutting Silicon Waste

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide The rise of the photovoltaic (PV) industry has made it increasingly important to address the environmentally and economically effective treatment of wire-cutting silicon waste powder. To tackle this issue and utilize the high-purity waste silicon, this paper presents a scalable fabrication of silicon/carbon anodes through a homogenization process. This process aims to alleviate the tendency of nanoparticles to aggregate, and further achieves good distribution. The high-pressure homogenization process lies in its ability to efficiently disperse carbon nanotube (CNT) agglomerations, significantly improve the homogeneous distribution of CNTs and nano-silicon in the carbon matrix, build up an integrated conductive framework, and avoid agglomeration of nano-silicon. Accordingly, great improvements have been achieved in the electrochemical response of this hybrid electrode. Even after 500 cycles, the prepared Si/CNTs/C anode keeps a stable reversible capacity at 490.1 mAh g −1, indicating its outstanding cycling stability. Furthermore, to prepare full cells, a pre-lithiated Si/CNTs/C composite served as the anode, while commercial NCM622 served as the cathode. The full cell maintained a capacity of 101.1 mAh g −1 after 50 cycles, corresponding to a capacity retention of 96.1%. This research develops a new scalable synthetic technique to reutilize silicon powder discarded in solar PV wire cutting, indicating that silicon waste from photovoltaics may emerge as a crucial resource when manufacturing lithium-ion batteries in the future.