Abstract: Disclosed herein is a composition comprising a shell that is substantially carbon encapsulating a volume that contains a nanoform of silicon and a void space. Disclosed herein too is a method of fabricating a composition comprising combining a nanoform of silicon with a carbon precursor and sintering the combination with a laser.

Abstract: Si micro-reactors and processes for fabrication thereof are provided. Such fabrication processing involves high-energy ball milling micro-sized Si particles with a first OPC mixture at first ball milling conditions to reduce the micro-sized Si particles to nanostructured particles and form Si+OPC clusters wherein the Si nanostructured particles are glued together by OPC. The Si+OPC clusters are high-energy ball milled with a second OPC mixture at second ball milling conditions to form a ball milled Si+OPC mixture wherein the Si+OPC clusters are injected into OPC particles. The ball milled Si+OPC mixture is treated at carbon shell formation conditions to convert OPC to carbon shells and to form Si nanostructured particles coated with a carbon shell. The Si core of the Si nanostructured particles coated with a carbon shell are chemically etched under chemical etching conditions to generate engineering voids in the shape of nano-channels inside the carbon shell and to form Si micro-reactors.