International Journal of Modern Science and Technology

INDEXED IN 

​​​​​​​March 2019, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp 70-74. 

​​​Rice Husks as a Sustainable Source of Nanostructured Silica for High Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes

A. Manju Sri, V. Chitra Devi, P. Manjula
Department of Chemical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College,Perundurai, Erode – 638060. India.

​​​*Corresponding author’s e-mail: manjusrikongu@gmail.com

​Abstract

​As India is a hub of agricultural waste, annually 12 million tons of rice husk is produced. So far rice husk has been recycled only for low-value agricultural items. In an effort to recycle rice husk for high-value applications, we convert the silica to silicon and use it for high-capacity lithium battery anodes. The rice husk is the outer covering of a rice kernel and it protects the inner ingredients from external attack by insects and bacteria. To perform this function of ventilating air and moisture, rice plants have a unique nanoporous silica layers in their husk. Also, rice husk contains 67% of silica and rice husk ash contains 80-90% of silica. Taking these advantages, the converted silicon exhibits excellent electrochemical performance as a lithium battery anode, with high reversible capacity (2,790 mA h/g , seven times greater than graphite anodes) and long cycle life (86% capacity retention over 300 cycles) suggesting that rice husk be a massive resource to use in high-capacity lithium battery negative electrodes. In the present work, we extract silica from rice husk by means of simple chemical processes such as acid and alkali treatments of rice husk rice and husk ash. To extract silica from rice husk, acid wash is done and high-temperature heating is needed to get Si remnant. Then it is grounded with MgO and allowed to react in a furnace. Then acid wash is done to remove oxides. The obtained silica was utilised to fabricate Li anode having Cu as a current collector using an appropriate binder. Thus the performance of Li-ion batteries is being enhanced.

Keywords: Rice husk; Nanoporous silica; Lithium battery; Anode.

​References

  1. Gidde MR, Jivan AP. Waste to Wealth - Potential of Rice Husk in India a Literature Review. Proceedings of the International Conference on Cleaner Technologies and Environmental Management PEC, 4-6 January 2007, Pondicherry, India. 2007; p. 586-590.
  2. Kalapathy U, Proctor A, Shultz J. A simple method for production of pure silica from rice hull ash. Bioresour Technol  2000;73(3):257-62.
  3. Mino G, Elizabeth F, Bruno S, Mario W, Judith SM. Structured Silicon Anodes for Lithium Battery Applications. Electrochem Solid St 2003;6(5):A75-9.
  4. Pengjian Zuo, Geping Yin, Yulin Ma. Electrochemical stability of silicon/carbon composite anode for lithium ion batteries. Electrochim Acta 2007;52:4878-83.
  5. Hui W, Yi C. Designing nanostructured Si anodes for high energy lithium ion batteries. Nano Today 2012;7(5):414-29.
  6. Xiuxia Z, Jin Z, Peter MB, Ya-Jun C. Silicon based lithium-ion battery anodes: A chronicle perspective review. Nano Energ 2017;31:113-43.
  7. Tao C, Ji W, Qing lin Z, Xin S. Recent advancement of SiOx based anodes for lithium-ion batteries. J Power Sources 2017;363:126-144.
  8. Prabu M, Redd MV, Selvasekarapandian S, Subba Rao GV, Chowdari BVR. (Li, Al)-co-doped spinel, Li (Li0.1Al0.1Mn1.8) O4 as high performance cathode for lithium ion batteries. Electrochim Acta 2013;88:745-5.
  9. Hao S, Xiangming H, Jianguo R, Jianjun L, Changyin J, Chunrong W. Hard carbon/lithium composite anode materials for Li-ion batteries. Electrochim Acta 2007; 52(13):4312-6.
  10. Isaev I, Salitra G, Soffer A, Cohen YS, Aurbach D, Fischer J. A new approach for the preparation of anodes for Li-ion batteries based on activated hard carbon cloth with pore design. J Power Sources 2003;119(121):28-33.
  11. Alexandre M,  Bogdan Z,  Igor K, Benjamin H, Ruslan B,  Christopher FH, Thomas FF,  Igor L, Gleb Y. Toward Efficient Binders for Li-Ion Battery Si-Based Anodes: Polyacrylic Acid. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2010;2(11):3004-10.
  12. Yanming J, Joel AT, Kai Z, Yuan M, Chunzhong W, Gang C, Yingjin W, Yu G. SiOx/C composite from rice husks as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Electrochim Acta 2016;191:411-6.
  13. Yafei S. Rice husk silica derived nanomaterials for sustainable applications. Renew Sust Energ Rev 2017;80:453-66
  14. Azat S, Korobeinyk AV, Moustakas K, Inglezakis VJ. Sustainable production of pure silica from rice husk waste in Kazakhstan. J Clean Prod 2019;217:352-9.
  15. Liangbing H, Nian L, Martin E, Guangyuan Z, James Mc D, Lars W, Yi C. Silicon-conductive nanopaper for Li-ion batteries. Nano Energ 2012;2(1):138-45.
  16. Akila S, Periasamy M. Recovery of Energy-Intensive Si particles from Rice husk for Li-ion batteries. International Journal of Engineering Research-Online 2015;3(4):146-50.
  17. James D, James B. Low Cost, Novel Methods for Fabricating All-Solid-State Lithium Ion Batteries. Project Number: YW1 MQP1, 2012.
  18. Weili A, Ben X, Jijiang F, Shixiong M, Siguang G, Kaifu H, Xuming  Z, Biao G, Paul KC. Three-dimensional carbon-coating silicon nanoparticles welded on carbon nanotubes composites for high-stability lithium-ion battery anodes. Appl Surf Sci 2019;479:896-902.
  19. Real C, Jose MC, María DA. Synthesis and characterization of       SiC/Si3N4 composites from rice husks. Ceram Int 2018;44(12):14645-51.
  20. de Sousa AM, Visconte V, Mansur C, Furtado C. Silica sol obtained from rice husk ash. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2009;3(4):321-26.
  21. Wanli X, Sri Sai SV, John CF. Surface-modified silicon nanowire anodes for lithium-ion batteries. J Power Sources 2011;196(20):8583-9.
  22. Hui W, Guihua Y, Lijia P, Nian L, Matthew TMD, Zhenan B, Yi C. Stable Li-ion battery anodes by in-situ polymerization of conducting hydrogel to conformally coat silicon nanoparticles. Nat Commun 2013;4:1-6.
  23. Jian W, Yuan C, Lu Q. The Development of Silicon Nanocomposite   Materials for Li-Ion Secondary Batteries. Mater 2011;5:228-35.
  24. Jinlong C, Jiachao Y, Jianzong M, Shaohui L, Jinpeng Y, Litong M, Wenxiu H, Juncai S, Jiangliang H. Porous Al/Al2O3 two-phase nanonetwork to improve electrochemical properties of porous C/SiO2 as anode for Li-ion batteries. Electrochim Acta 2019;300:470-81.
  25. Huiya C, Qingzhou W, Jianguo H. Rice husk derived silicon/carbon and silica/carbon nanocomposites as anodic materials for lithium-ion batteries. Colloids Surf A 2018;558:495-503.

ISSN 2456-0235