− To use as an anode material of lithium secondary battery, graphite-silicon composite powders are prepared by ball-milling with silicon nanoparticles (average diameter 100 nm, 0~50 wt%) and graphite powder (average diameter 15 µm) and their electrochemical properties are examined. As the silicon content increases, the graphite becomes smaller by the ball-milling and amorphous phase appears whereas the silicon do not suffer the change of nanocrystalline phases and embeds within the amorphous phase of graphite. Cyclic voltammetry at low scan rate reveals that typical oxidation peaks of graphite and silicon appear at 0.2~0.35 and 0.55~0.6 V, respectively, with higher reversibility for repeated cycles. In contrast, the high-scan-rate redox behavior is very irreversible for repeated cycles. High irreversible capacity is exhibited in the initial charging-discharging cycles, but it diminishes as the cycle number increases. The saturated discharge capacity achieves about 485 mAh g −1 at 50th cycle for the composite of Si 20 wt%. This is due to the formation of amorphous graphite morphology by the adequate composition (C:Si=8:2 w/w), which efficiently buffers the volume change during alloying/dealloying between silicon and lithium.

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-Mixtures of poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-HFP) and silica nanoparticles are coated on the surface of a silk fabrics separator. The coated separators are finally prepared by injecting an electrolyte solution and then characterized for use of lithium-ion battery separator/electrolyte. In the preparation, various contents of dibutylphthalate (DBP) as a plasticizer are used to enhance the formation of micropores within the coated membrane. The coated silk fabrics separators are characterized in terms of ionic conductivity, drenching rate, and electrochemical stability, and the charge-discharge profiles of lithium-ion batteries adopting the coated separators are also examined. As a result, the coated silk fabrics separator prepared using DBP 40~50 wt% and silica shows the superior separator properties and high-rate capability. This is due to (i) high sustainability of silk fabrics, (ii) the formation of micropores with the coated layer membrane by DBP, (iii) increase in drenching rate by silica nanoparticles to involve great enhancements in specific surface area and ionic conductivity.