Advanced silicon nanostructures derived from natural silicate minerals for energy storage and conversion

Abstract

To effectively alleviate the ever-increasing energy crisis and environmental issues, clean and sustainable energy-related materials as well as the corresponding storage/conversion devices are in urgent demand. Silicon (Si) with the second most elemental abundance on the crust in the form of silicate or silica (SiO2) minerals, is an advanced emerging material showing high performance in energy-related fields (e.g. batteries, photocatalytic hydrogen evolution). For the improved performance in industry-scale applications, Si materials with delicate nanostructures and ideal compositions in a massive production are highly cherished. On account of the reserve, low cost and diverse micro-nanostructures, silicate minerals are proposed as promising raw materials. In the article, crystal structures and the reduction approaches for silicate minerals, as well as recent progress on the as-reduced Si products for clean energy storage/conversion, are presented systematically. Moreover, some cutting-edge fields involving Si materials are discussed, which may offer deep insights into the rational design of advanced Si nanostructures for extended energy-related fields.

Keywords

• Silicate minerals
• Si nanostructures
• Batteries
• Catalysis