The electrode materials are the most critical content for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy density for electric vehicles and portable electronics. Considering the high abundance, environmental friendliness, low cost, high capacity, and low operation potential of silicon‐based anode, it has been intensively studied as one of the most promising anode materials for high‐energy LIBs. However, the widespread application of silicon anode is impeded by the poor electrical conductivity, large volume variation, and unstable solid–electrolyte interfaces films. In the past decade, significant efforts have been demonstrated to tackle these major challenges toward industrial applications. Herein, the focus is on combining with advanced structure like nanostructure and composite with other materials, exploring various new polymer binders, improving electrolyte, different prelithiation strategies, and Si/graphite design to meet commercialization requirements, particularly summarized the progress on areal capacity, initial Coulombic efficiency, and cost. Finally, the guidelines and trends for practical silicon electrodes are presented based on the recent reports.

Conformally carbon-coated FeP (FeP@C) nanoplates with a porous feature are synthesized by integrating three simple approaches: hydrothermal growth of Fe₂O₃ nanoplates, the spatial introduction of conformal carbon coating, and chemical conversion of an intermediate into FeP by a low-temperature phosphidation strategy. The introduction of carbon coating not only serves as a buttering to effectively prevent the restacking of nanoplates, but also largely improves electrical conductivity and reinforces the structural robustness of FeP. The obtained FeP@C nanoplates show two-dimensional morphology and possess a large surface-area-to-volume-ratio and abundant inner mesopores with a high specific surface area. As an anode of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the prepared FeP@C nanoplates exhibit exceptionally high electrochemical performance, which largely outperforms the Fe₃O₄@C counterpart under identical morphological properties in experimental and simulated results. As a result, the FeP@C nanoplates exhibit a reversible specific capacity of 720 mA h g⁻¹ and a capacity retention rate of 96% after 100 cycles at a current density of 200 mA g⁻¹. Even at a higher current density of 500 mA g⁻¹, it still delivers a stable capacity of 610 mA h g⁻¹ within 400 cycles with negligible capacity fading, which opens venues for long life-time applications of LIBs. Furthermore, the superior rate capability of such anodes is also obtained with a reversible specific capacity of 347 mA h g⁻¹ at 5000 mA g⁻¹. The outstanding lithium ion storage properties of the FeP@C nanoplates may be attributed to the reduced energy barrier for the Li storage reaction, shortened electronic/ionic transfer paths, and the physical buffering effect rooted in the rational integration of the phosphide-based species, plate-like nanostructure and conformal carbon surface modification.

Silicon-Based Anode Materials The development of long-endurance and fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are important in electric vehicles. Silicon-based anode materials have attracted much a...

The interfacial properties of electrode materials have a crucial impact on enhancing their charge transfer. However, a deep understanding of this aspect remains elusive. Herein, we provide an effective strategy to manipulate the internal electric field (E-field) of metal sulfide heterostructures to accelerate their Na-ion storage kinetics. To prove this concept, we selected ZnS and Fe₉S₁₀ with a large energy bandgap difference as model components with the aim to build a strong E-field at their hetero-interfaces, thus fabricating stable ZnS/Fe₉S₁₀ heterostructures for high-rate and high-capacity sodium ion storage. The emerging built-in E-field in the carbon-coated ZnS/Fe₉S₁₀ heterostructures can accelerate ion/electron migration rates and facilitate charge transfer behavior by the internal driving force of the E-field, guaranteeing enhanced reaction reversibility and sodium storage kinetics. These engineered heterostructures deliver a high initial coulombic efficiency of 85.3%, a high reversible capacity of 636 mA h g⁻¹ at 500 mA g⁻¹ and stable cycling performance. In particular, they also exhibit superior rate capacities of 295 mA h g⁻¹ at 30 A g⁻¹ and 235 mA h g⁻¹ at 50 A g⁻¹, indicating that this battery can be fully charged within 17 s. More importantly, this design concept can be extended to construct other heterostructures, such as ZnS and Sn₂S₃.