Carbon nanotube-enhanced growth of silicon nanowires as an anode for high-performance lithium-ion batteries

A simple, efficient, and elegant method is developed to greatly enhance vapor-liquid-solid growth of silicon nanowires on current collectors, which leads to well-aligned silicon nanowires with a high areal loading density within a short growth time, and thus enhances electrochemical performance of lithium-ion battery half cells with these nanowires as working electrodes when compared with electrodes based on traditional catalysts.