Development of new, safe, low cost and environmentally friendly materials for lithium ion batteries is an essential part of the technological advance of portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. To meet the requirements, such as high capacity, power and stable cycle performance, diverse research has been performed, in the case of the anode, to search for Li-alloying materials with a higher capacity than graphite.
Silica (SiO2) is one of the most abundant materials on Earth, and widely utilized in the glass and electronics industries. However, when applying silica as the anode material for Li secondary batteries, it does not react with Li due to its stability as an oxide. It was reported that it exhibited Li reactivity in amorphous states such as a thin film or hollow sphere,23–25 but the processes required complex procedures employing high cost precursors. Also the reaction mechanism is not yet clearly understood. We herein report on the simple, cost-effective and ecologically acceptable material, SiO2(quartz), as a precursor, to be used as an anode material for Li secondary batteries by high energy mechanical milling (HEMM).