High Areal Capacity Porous Sn-Au Alloys with Long Cycle Life for Li-ion Microbatteries

Long-term stability is one of the most desired functionalities of energy storage microdevices for wearable electronics, wireless sensor networks and the upcoming Internet of Things. Although Li-ion microbatteries have become the dominant energy-storage technology for on-chip electronics, the extension of lifetime of these components remains a fundamental hurdle to overcome. Here, we develop an ultra-stable porous anode based on SnAu alloys able to withstand a high specific capacity exceeding 100 µAh cm −2 at 3 C rate for more than 6000 cycles of charge/discharge. Also, this new anode material exhibits low potential (0.2 V versus lithium) and one of the highest specific capacity ever reported at low C-rates (7.3 mAh cm −2 at 0.1 C). We show that the outstanding cyclability is the result of a combination of many factors, including limited volume expansion, as supported by density functional theory calculations. This finding opens new opportunities in design of long-lasting integrated energy storage for self-powered microsystems.