• • Silicon anodes offer a theoretical capacity of ~4200 mAh g−1, but the 'size effect' dictates failure modes: nano-silicon (nSi) suffers from severe agglomeration and interfacial side reactions, while micro-silicon (mSi) undergoes fracture due to large volume changes; optimal particle size blending (e.g., in ref. 101) improves cycling performance.
• • Sulfide electrolytes (e.g., Li6PS5Cl) exhibit high ionic conductivity but require pressure management; recent advances enable Si-based all-solid-state batteries to operate free from external pressure (ref. 96), a critical step for practical cell packaging.
• • Hard-carbon-stabilized Li–Si anodes (ref. 100) demonstrate high-performance all-solid-state Li-ion batteries, achieving stable cycling over hundreds of cycles, addressing the mechanical degradation and interfacial instability that plague pure Si anodes.
• • Large-scale fabrication of stable Si anodes in air for sulfide solid-state batteries is enabled by ionic-electronic dual conductive binders (ref. 102), which maintain conductive networks and accommodate volume changes, facilitating industrial scalability.