Pitch-based carbon/nano-silicon composite, an efficient anode for Li-ion batteries.

As silicon-carbon electrodes with low silicon ratio are the negative electrode foreseen by battery manufacturers for the next generation of Li-ion batteries, a great effort has to be made to improve their efficiency and decrease their cost. Pitch-based carbon/nano-silicon composites are proposed as a high performance and realistic electrode material of Li-ion battery anodes. Composites are prepared in a simple way by the pyrolysis under argon atmosphere of silicon nanoparticles, obtained by a laser pyrolysis technique, and a low cost carbon source: petroleum pitch.

Ethers as Oxygen Donor and Carbon Source in Non-hydrolytic Sol-Gel: One-Pot, Atom-Economic Synthesis of Mesoporous TiO -Carbon Nanocomposites.

Mesoporous TiO -carbon nanocomposites were synthesized using an original non-hydrolytic sol-gel (NHSG) route, based on the reaction of simple ethers (diisopropyl ether or tetrahydrofuran) with titanium tetrachloride. In this atom-economic, solvent-free process, the ether acts not only as an oxygen donor but also as the sole carbon source. Increasing the reaction temperature to 180 °C leads to the decomposition of the alkyl chloride by-product and to the formation of hydrocarbon polymers, which are converted to carbon by pyrolysis under argon.