Low‐temperature synthesis of graphitic carbon‐coated silicon anode materials

We report the synthesis of a high‐performance graphitic carbon‐coated silicon (Si@GC) composite material for lithium‐ion batteries via a scalable production route. Porous Si is produced from the magnesiothermic reduction of commercial silica (SiO2) precursor followed by low‐temperature graphitic carbon coating using glucose as the precursor. The obtained Si@GC composite achieves an excellent reversible specific capacity of 1195 mAh g−1 and outstanding cycle stability. The thick Si@GC anode (3.4 mg cm−2) in full cells with commercial lithium iron phosphate cathode delivers a remarkable performance of 800 mAh g−1 specific capacity and 2.7 mAh cm−2 areal capacity as well as 93.6% capacity retention after 200 cycles. High‐performance silicon‐carbon composite anode is produced from the combination of magnesiothermic reduction of silica and simple catalytical graphitization using glucose as the carbon precursor and in situ formed iron oxide as the catalyst. The obtained silicon‐carbon anode demonstrates high areal capacity and excellent cycle stability in full batteries towards practical standard.