Controlled growth of flower-like SnS 2 hierarchical structures was obtained by a facile hydrothermal method with the mixture solution of SnCl 4 and L-cysteine (L-cys). The results of electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction characterization indicated that morphology, structure, and crystallinity of the hierarchical structures were seriously dependent on the concentration of L-cys, mole ratio of Sn 4+ to L-cys and temperature. Electrochemical tests demonstrated that the flower-like SnS 2 hierarchical structures exhibited superior cycling performance for anode materials of Li-ion batteries, which retained a high reversible capacity of 418 mAhg −1 and stable cyclic retention at 100th cycle. These results show that the flower-like SnS 2 hierarchical structures were suitable for using as anode material in lithium-ion batteries.

Ternary semiconducting AgSbTe2 nanowire arrays were synthesized for the first time by using the direct-current electrodeposition technique. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry, and transmission electron microscopy analyses indicate that the nanowire arrays are high filling, ordered, single crystalline and the nanowires have a highly preferential orientation grown along the [100] direction. Annealing studies show that compared with other temperatures, annealing at 100 ∘ C can significantly increase the crystallinity of AgSbTe2 nanowires. The optical absorbance spectra of the AgSbTe2 nanowire arrays show that the optical band gap has a strong blue shift with decreasing the diameter of the nanowire.

A large diameter porous SnO2 nanospheres/graphene composite was synthesized by an in situ hydrothermal method for the first time. TEM images indicate that the porous SnO2 nanospheres are distributed on the graphene nanosheets uniformly.

Porous hollow SnO 2 nanospheres were prepared by means of enforced Sn 2þ hydrolysis method under hydrochloric acid medium. These hollow nanospheres with an average diameter of 220 nm had a very thin shell thickness of about 40 nm and were surrounded by elongated octahedral-like nanoparticles with the apex oriented outside. The experimental conditions, such as HCl content, reaction temperature and time directly dominated the morphology, structure and crystallinity of the obtained samples. A pre-oxidation-nucleation-growth mechanism and inside-out Ostwaldripening method was proposed on the basis of the previous research and time-dependent experiments. Electrochemical tests showed that the porous hollow SnO 2 nanospheres exhibited improved cycling performance for anode materials of lithium-ion batteries, which retained a high reversible capacity of 540.0 mAhg À1 , and stable cyclic retention at 120th cycle.