# Assembled Carbon Nanostructure Prepared by Spray Freeze Drying for Si-Based Anodes

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to create carbon nanostructures for silicon-based battery anodes, improving their stability and performance.

## Contribution

A novel spray freeze drying technique is used to create multidimensional carbon nanostructures for silicon anodes.

## Key findings

- The wrinkled carbon nanosheets reduced stress from silicon nanoparticle aggregation.
- The composite showed 1279 mAh g−1 capacity after 100 cycles at 0.2 C.
- It retained 677.1 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles at 1 C, showing good stability.

## Abstract

Silicon-based materials provide a new pathway to break through the energy storage limits of battery systems but their industrialization process is still constrained by inherent diffusion hysteresis and unstable electrode structures. In this work, we propose a novel structural design strategy employing a modified spray freeze drying technique to construct multidimensional carbon nanostructures. The continuous morphological transition from carbon nanowires to carbon nanosheets was facilitated by the inducement of ultralow-temperature phase separation and the effect of polymer self-assembly. The unique wrinkled carbon nanosheet encapsulation effectively mitigated the stress concentration induced by the aggregation of silicon nanoparticles, while the open two-dimensional structure buffered the volume changes of silicon. As expected, the SSC-5M composite retained a reversible capacity of 1279 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 C (1 C = 1700 mAh g−1) and exhibited a capacity retention of 677.1 mAh g−1 after 400 cycles at 1 C, demonstrating excellent cycling stability. This study offers a new strategy for the development of silicon-based energy storage devices.