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Researchers at  the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have developed a new architecture for lithium-ion battery anodes that outperforms the current standard. The newly developed three-dimensional, silicon-decorated, cone-shaped carbon-nanotube cluster architecture could enable charging of portable electronics in 10 minutes instead hours. 

For now, lithium ion batteries are the most preferred choice for portable electronics devices and electric vehicles. However, these also have some significant drawbacks, i.e, batteries in electric vehicles are responsible for a significant portion of the vehicle mass.

Lately, silicon, a type of anode material, is receiving a lot of attention because its total charge capacity being 10 times higher than commercial graphite based lithium ion battery. It is worth noting that if the commonly used graphite anode is replaced with silicon anodes, we can get a 63 percent increase in total cell capacity and the battery would be 40 percent lighter and smaller.

In the paper, researchers described a novel structure of three-dimensional silicon decorated cone-shaped carbon nanotube clusters architecture via chemical vapor deposition and inductively coupled plasma treatment.

Lithium ion batteries based on this novel architecture demonstrate a high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability. The architecture demonstrates excellent electrochemical stability and irreversibility even at high charge and discharge rates, nearly 16 times faster than conventionally used graphite based anodes, the press release added.

The paper has been published in the journal SMALL.