Amylopectin from Glutinous Rice as a Sustainable Binder for High-Performance Silicon Anodes

Silicon(Si)has been investigated as a promising anode material because of its high theoretical capacity(4200 m Ah g^(-1)).However,silicon anode suffers from huge volume changes during repeated charge–discharge cycles.In this work,inspired by a remarkable success of the glutinous rice mortar in the Great Wall with ca.2000-year history,amylopectin(AP),the key ingredient responsible for the strong bonding force,is extracted from glutinous rice and utilized as a flexible,aqueous,and resilient binder to address the most challenging drastic volume-expansion and pulverization issues of silicon anode.Additionally,the removal of toxic N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP)organic solvent makes the electrode fabrication process environmentally friendly and healthy.The as-prepared Si-AP electrode with 60 wt%of Si can uphold a high discharge capacity of 1517.9 m Ah g^(-1)at a rate of 0.1 C after 100 cycles.The cycling stability of the Si-AP has been remarkably improved in comparison with both traditional polyvinylidene fluoride(PVDF)and aqueous carboxymethylcellulose(CMC)binders.Moreover,when the content of silicon in the Si-AP electrode increases to 70 wt%,a high discharge capacity of 1463.1 m Ah g^(-1)can still be obtained after 50 cycles at 0.1°C.These preliminary results suggest that the sustainably available and environmentally benign amylopectin binders could be a promising choice for the construction of highly stable silicon anodes.