Electrochemically active materials and methods of preparing the same

1. A method of preparing an electrochemically active material, comprising:

providing electrochemically active particles;

coating the particles with a binder;

exposing the particles to a source of metal;

forming metal salt on the surface of the particles from the source of metal; and

heating the metal salt to form metal oxide coated particles, wherein the metal oxide comprises a conformal cerium oxide layer over the electrochemically active particles, and wherein the metal oxide is without cerium oxide aggregates; and

wherein the binder comprises a surfactant comprising at least one of sodium dodecylsulfonate, sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, sodium dialkylsulfosuccinate, alkylbenzene sulfonates, alcohol ether sulfates, secondary alkane sulfonates, and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrochemically active particles comprise at least one of silicon particles, germanium particles, graphite particles, and particles of an alloy metal.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the electrochemically active material comprises silicon particles at greater than about 50% to about 99% by weight.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particles have a median particle size (D50) greater than about 1 μm to about 50 μm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the binder comprises a polymer having a molecular weight in the range of about 20,000 g/mol to about 40,000 g/mol.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the polymer has an ethylene backbone.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding metal oxide particles with the metal oxide coated particles.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the metal oxide particles have a median particle size (D50) in the range of about 20 nm to about 2 μm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide comprises CeO x , wherein 1≤x≤2.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the source of metal for the metal oxide comprises at least one of ammonium cerium nitrate, cerium (IV) sulfate, cerium (III) nitrate hexahydrate, cerium (III) chloride heptahydrate, cerium trifluoromethanesulfonate, cerium (III) sulfate octahydrate, ammonium cerium (IV) sulfate dihydrate, cerium (III) sulfate, cerium (IV) sulfate tetrahydrate, cerium (III) acetate hydrate, and ammonium cerium (IV) nitrate.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the source of metal for the metal oxide comprises a cerium-doped material.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the cerium-doped material comprises at least one of cerium (IV) oxide-yttria doped material, cerium-doped copper, cerium doped cobalt oxide, and cerium-doped indium oxide.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal oxide comprises at least one of TiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , MoO 2 , CuO, ZnO, SnO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 , RuO 2 , IrO 2 , TiNb 2 O 7 , Zn x Fe y O z , wherein 1<x,y,z<4, and M-Li x O, wherein M is a transition metal and 0.1≤x≤2.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal salt comprises at least one of nitrates, nitrites, sulfates, sulfites, sulfonates, hydroxides, isopropoxides, oxyhydroxides, acetates, and carbonates.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing the particles to urea prior to forming the metal salt on the surface of the particles.

16. A method of making an electrode, comprising:

providing the electrochemically active material prepared using the method of claim 1 ; and

coating the electrochemically active material on a current collector with the binder.

17. A method of making an electrode, comprising:

providing the electrochemically active material prepared using the method of claim 1 ;

mixing the electrochemically active material with a precursor; and

pyrolyzing the precursor to convert the precursor into one or more types of carbon phases to form a composite material film.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the one or more types of carbon phases comprise at least one of hard carbon, soft carbon, and graphene.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein the composite material film is a self-supported composite structure.