Constructing 3D Interconnected Si/SiOx/C Nanorings from Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) has great potential for controllable and designable material preparation due to its organic –inorganic properties and unique molecular structure. In this work, POSS is introduced into the controllable preparation of functional carbon based nanomaterials, and 3D interconnected Si/SiOx/C nanoring with uniform diameter are successfully prepared by the “bottom-up” strategy. AbstractPolyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) is a family of organic/inorganic hybrid materials with specific molecular symmetry, and shows great potential in the structural design of nanomaterials. Here, a “bottom-up” strategy is designed to fabricate 3D interconnected Si/SiOx/C nanorings (NRs) via AlCl3-assisted aluminothermic reduction using dodecaphenyl cage silsesquioxane (T12-Ph) as the building block. In this process, AlCl3 acts as both a liquid medium for reduction, and significantly as the catalyst to the cross-linking of phenyl groups in T12-Ph. The obtained Si/SiOx/C NRs exhibits uniform diameter of ≈165 nm and well distribution of C and Si elements. The unique ring-like structure of Si/SiOx/C NRs makes it have great application potential in the field of lithium ion batteries. Notably, Si/SiOx/C NRs exhibits superior high-rate capacity and good cycle stability when used as anode for LIBs. More excitingly, Si/SiOx/C NRs can deliver a high reversible capacity of 517.9  mA h g−1 at ultra-low temperature of −70 °C, and the capacity re...
Source: Small - Category: Nanotechnology Authors: Tags: Research Article Source Type: research