Environmental Emissions from Chemical Etching Synthesis of Silicon Nanotube for Lithium Ion Battery Applications

2018 
Silicon nanotubes (SiNTs) have been researched as a promising anode material to replace graphite in next-generation lithium ion batteries. Chemical etching synthesis of SiNTs is a simple, controllable and scalable process for SiNT fabrication, but the environmental emissions are of grave concern. In this paper, the process emissions from chemical etching synthesis of SiNTs as anode for lithium ion batteries is studied through experimental techniques, considering the categories of aqueous wastes, gaseous emissions, aqueous nano-particle emissions, and gaseous aerosol emissions. The synthesized SiNTs are measured at 10 μm length and 1–2.2 μm diameter, and can maintain a specific capacity of over 800 mAh/g after 100 cycles in battery testing. In aqueous waste, the chemical compositions of all elements participating in the chemical etching are experimentally determined, with AgNO3 and Co(NO3)2 identified as the major pollutants. The only gaseous emission generated from the chemical etching synthesis process is H2, with 0.0088 ± 0.0002 mol H2 generated to produce 1.0 mg SiNTs. The aqueous nanoparticle sizes are found to be between 250 nm and 1540 nm. A large number of aerosol nanoparticle emissions of up to 2.96 × 107 particles/cm3 are detected through in situ experimental measurement.
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