Acid hydrolysis to provide the potential for rice-husk-derived C/SiO₂ composites for lithium-ion batteries

As major waste materials in the rice milling industry, rice husks (RHs) have potential industrial applications. In this work, acid solutions were used to extract high-value-added polysaccharide components (hemicellulose and cellulose) from RHs to obtain sugar residues (SRs) for comprehensive utilization. The SRs were converted into C/SiO2 composites after carbonization and ball-milling. The C/SiO2 composites with crystalline cellulose content in the precursor possessed desirable electrochemical properties when tested as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), including cycle performance, initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) and electrical impedance. Meanwhile, a high reversible specific capacity of 553 mAh g−1 was maintained after 100 cycles at a current density of 0.1 A g−1. This method can be used to turn biomass into a potentially valuable anode material with desirable electrochemical properties for LIBs.