According to the ministry of science and technology's website, silicon is considered a promising material for high-capacity batteries because it is abundant and can absorb more lithium ions than the graphite used in lithium-ion batteries.However, silicon particles expand and contract when they absorb and release lithium ions, and are prone to rupture after repeated cycles of charging and discharging.

Jillian Buriak, a chemist at the university of alberta in Canada, and his team have found that molding silicon into nanoparticles helps prevent it from cracking.The study tested four different sizes of silicon nanoparticles to determine the size that maximizes silicon's strengths while minimizing its weaknesses.They are uniformly distributed in highly conductive graphene aerogels made from carbon with nano-pore sizes to compensate for the low conductivity of silicon.They found that the smallest particles, just three billionths of a metre in diameter, showed the best long-term stability after repeated cycles of charge and discharge.This overcomes the limitations of using silicon in lithium-ion batteries.The discovery could lead to a new generation of batteries with 10 times the capacity of current lithium-ion batteries, a crucial step toward making a new generation of silicon-based lithium-ion batteries.

The research has broad application prospects, especially in the field of electric vehicles, which can drive longer, charge faster and have lighter batteries.The next step is to develop a faster and cheaper way to make silicon nanoparticles, making them easier to use in industrial applications.The research was published in the journal materials chemistry.