一项研究报告说，稻壳中的二氧化硅可以转化成硅并且变为高容量锂电池的阳极，高容量锂电池对于先进的便携电子设备以及混合动力汽车的开发具有重要意义。Jang Wook Choi及其同事着手利用全世界每年在稻米生产中作为废料产出的多于108吨的稻壳的巨大潜力。稻壳是由独特的二氧化硅层组成的，能保护内部的谷粒不受虫子和细菌的侵害，但是在纳米尺寸上能透气透水。这组作者使用了几个步骤，包括酸和热处理，从而从稻壳的外层提取出了二氧化硅并把它转化成了硅。这个过程保存了这种二氧化硅层的原来的三维多孔纳米结构。这组作者使用提取出的二氧化硅作为锂离子电池的阳极，结果发现它们有优秀的电化学性能。这组作者提出，回收的稻壳可能作为一种在很大程度上尚未得到利用的大规模资源，帮助满足对锂离子电池的硅的需求。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
PNAS 10.1073/pnas.1305025110
Recycling rice husks for high-capacity lithium battery anodes
Dae Soo Jung, Myung-Hyun Ryou, Yong Joo Sung, Seung Bin Park, and Jang Wook Choi
The rice husk is the outer covering of a rice kernel and protects the inner ingredients from external attack by insects and bacteria. To perform this function while ventilating air and moisture, rice plants have developed unique nanoporous silica layers in their husks through years of natural evolution. Despite the massive amount of annual production near 108 tons worldwide, so far rice husks have been recycled only for low-value agricultural items. In an effort to recycle rice husks for high-value applications, we convert the silica to silicon and use it for high-capacity lithium battery anodes. Taking advantage of the interconnected nanoporous structure naturally existing in rice husks, the converted silicon exhibits excellent electrochemical performance as a lithium battery anode, suggesting that rice husks can be a massive resource for use in high-capacity lithium battery negative electrodes.
