Si nanowires/Cu nanowires bilayer fabric as a lithium ion capacitor anode with excellent performance

A light and binder-free bilayer fabric electrode composed of silicon nanowires and copper nanowires for lithium ion capacitors (LICs) is reported. A lithium ion capacitor is proposed employing pre-lithiated silicon/copper nanowire fabric and activated carbon as the anode and the cathode, respectively. These LICs show remarkable performance with a specific capacitance of 156 F g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1), which is approximately twice of that of activated carbon in electric double -layer capacitors (EDLCs), and still exhibit a fine specific capacitance of 68 F g(-1) even at a high current density of 20 A g(-1). At a low power density of 193 W kg(-1), the Si/Cu fabric//AC LIC can achieve high energy density of 210 W h kg(-1). As the power density is increased to 99 kW kg(-1), the energy density still remains at 43 W h kg(-1), showing the prominent rate performance.