Recently, Professor Ge Mingzheng, from School of Textile and Clothing, published a review paper entitled ‘Recent Advances in Silicon-Based Electrodes: From Fundamental Research toward Practical Applications’in Advanced Materials, a top international journal in the field of materials science. Also selected as the insert cover, the paper is the co-work of Professor Ge’s non-woven team and Professor Lai Yuekun’s team from Fuzhou University.

The increasing demand for higher-energy-density lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is driven by advancements in electronic devices (mobile phones, computers, etc.), electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles. As the theoretical capacity of Si is 3579 mAh/g, about 10 times that of commercial graphite anodes (372 mAh/g), Si is silicon is expected to replace graphite as a particularly promising candidate for next generation anodes of LIBs. However, drawbacks such as large volume expansion, unstable solid electrolyte interface (SEI) growth, low initial coulombic efficiency (CE) have significantly hindered its commercialization.

By analyzing the working mechanism of Si-based anode materials and the technical challenges it faces, this review highlights a variety of current studies on modification of Si-based anode materials, including nanoarchitectured Si and its dimensional design, structural design of Si composite materials, novel binder, novel electrolytes/additives, pre-lithium technology, etc., which has provided valuable experience for its commercialization.

Advanced Materials is one of the world’s top academic journals in the field of material science as well as a Nature Index journal. It ranks Q-1 of JCR (Journal Citation Reports) with an impact factor of 27.398. It is the first time that NTU appears as the first author employer in the journal.