Lithiation effects on the structural and electronic properties of Si nanowires as a potential anode material

The need for better energy-storage materials has attracted much attention to the development of Li-ion battery electrodes. Si nanowires have been considered as alternative electrodes, however the effects of Li on their electronic band gap and mechanical properties have been scarcely studied. In this work, a density functional study of the electronic and mechanical properties of hydrogen passivated silicon nanowires (H-SiNWs) grown along the [001] direction is presented. The Li atoms are gradually inserted at interstitial positions or replacing surface H atoms. The results show that, for surface-lithiated H-SiNWs, the semiconducting band gap decreases when the concentration of Li atoms increases; whereas the H-SiNWs become metallic even with the addition of only one interstitial Li atom. The formation energy diminishes with the concentration of Li atoms for surface-lithiated H-SiNWs, whereas the contrary behavior is found in the interstitial-lithiated H-SiNWs. Furthermore, for the surface-lithiation case, the Li binding energy reveals the existence of Si–Li bonds, whereas for the interstitial-lithiation case, the Li binding energy increases when the Li grows up to a critical concentration, where some Si–Si bonds break. Finally, for the case of surface-lithiation, the Young's modulus (Y) increases with the concentration of Li, whereas for the interstitial-lithiation case, Y suffers a sudden diminution at a certain Li concentration due to the large internal mechanical stresses within the nanowire structure. These results should be considered when regarding H-SiNWs as potential electrodes in Li-ion battery anodes.