Fabrication of high-performance lithium ion battery anode materials from polysilsesquioxane nanotubes

Helical 1,4-phenylene bridged polysilsesquioxane nanotubes are prepared via a sol-gel preparation method using chiral gelator as the template. After carbonized at 700 °C to remove the silica moiety, helical carbon nanotubes are thus obtained. When the carbonization temperature is increased to 1400 °C, SiC nanorods comprising 7.9 wt% of residual carbon are produced. Furthermore, helical Si/SiC/C composite nanotubes were gained through a magnesiothermic reduction reaction. When the above three nanomaterials are applied in lithium ion batteries as the anodes, they exhibit rather high Li-storage capability and excellent cycling stability.