SYNTHESIS OF GRAPHITIC SHELLS ON SILICON NANOPARTICLES

Discussed herein are methods for making an anode material comprising silicon nanoparticles and a graphite carbon coating thereon. The method can include providing silicon nanoparticles, applying an amorphous carbon coating thereon to create an amorphous carbon shell on the silicon nanoparticles at a first temperature, and converting the amorphous carbon shell to a graphite carbon shell at a second temperature higher than the first temperature. The method can optionally include producing silicon nanoparticles by providing an argon-silane mixture, exposing the argon-silane mixture to a non-thermal plasma to convert the silane mixture to amorphous clusters, and passing the amorphous clusters through a furnace at a first temperature so as to agglomerate them to silicon nanoparticles.