Plasma-engineered bonding stabilizes recycled photovoltaic silicon anodes for high-rate lithium storage

Silicon offers exceptionally high theoretical capacity for lithium-ion battery anodes but suffers from large volume variation and unstable interphase evolution. Here we upcycle end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) silicon into a plasma-activated Si/C composite (P-Si/C) via dielectric barrier discharge plasma-assisted ball milling. Plasma activation promotes interfacial reactions and strengthens Si C coupling, thereby improving charge transport and suppressing mechanically driven degradation during cycling. P-Si/C delivers an initial Coulombic efficiency of 80.52% and stable cycling at high current density, retaining over 1700 mAh g −1 at 3 A g −1 with negligible decay over 100 cycles and a Coulombic efficiency approaching 100%. This work provides a practical route to convert PV waste into high-performance Si-based anodes for sustainable energy storage.