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AbstractThe need for miniaturization of high-speed and high-power devices to meet consumer demand for easy access and portability has placed stringent demands on the energy requirements. There is therefore a need for high-energy density lightweight energy storage systems to meet these challenging demands of portable devices. The Liion battery since its commercialization by Sony in 1990 is still the major choice of rechargeable energy source for portable consumer electronic devices such as camcorders, laptops and cellular phones. Since 1990 however, the materials systems used in Li-ion batteries have considerably matured. The area of cathodes has witnessed considerable research activity and a number of systems have been identified with potential capacities for use in high-energy systems. In the area of anodes however, graphite still appears to be the material of choice. There is therefore a need to identify alternative electrochemically active anode systems better than carbon that could be competitive with existing and advanced cathode systems of the future while at the same time meeting the challenges posed by high-energy devices.Several metals are known to react with lithium to form useful anode materials exhibiting high capacity for Li-ion battery application. However, the cycle life of these materials is generally poor since the large volume changes (≅ 300~600 %) caused by the reaction of lithium with these metals inevitably leads to decrepitation, cracking and iii Tin-based nanocomposites on the other hand, have been synthesized by pyrolyzing the precursors generated by the infiltration of organotin compounds such as tetraethyl tin into mechanically milled PS-resin. The Sn/C electrodes exhibit a promising initial discharge capacity of ~480mAh/g that lowers to a value of 460 mAh/g after 30 cycles. The nanocomposite consists of spherical nano-particles of tin (~200nm) dispersed in amorphous carbon particles determined by TEM analysis. Results of the studies so far have shown that Sn and Si-based nanocomposites appear to be quite promising anode systems for Li-ion application.iv