Electrochemical performance of Ag doped Al0.6Si0.4/Al thin film anodes

Radio frequency magnetron sputtering was adopted to deposit an Al1-x-ySixAgy/Al bilayer thin film anode in this study. The effects of Ag doping and the vacuum annealing on the charge-discharge characteristics of the prepared binary and ternary alloys were discussed. Al-Si based intermetallic alloys are considered as attractive anode materials for lithium ion batteries due to their ultrahigh theoretical capacities. It was observed that Ag doping significantly improved the electrical conductivity and affected the cycling performance. The charge-discharge characteristics of anodes were investigated both at room temperature and 55 degree C. The relationship between cycling performances and the electrochemical characteristics of the Al1-x-ySixAgy/Al bilayer thin film anodes was also investigated via cyclic voltammetry. The change resulting from annealing in elemental distribution around the interlayer was carefully investigated by TEM to figure out the difference among the cycling performance of specimens.