Substoichiometric Silicon Nitride - An Anode Material for Li-ion Batteries Promising High Stability and High Capacity.

Silicon is often regarded as a likely candidate to replace graphite as the main active anode material in next-generation lithium ion batteries; however, a number of problems impacting its cycle stability have limited its commercial relevance. One approach to solving these issues involves the use of convertible silicon sub-oxides. In this work we have investigated amorphous silicon sub-nitride as an alternative convertible silicon compound by comparing the electrochemical performance of a-SiN thin films with compositions ranging from pure Si to SiN.