Environmentally Friendly and Cost-Effective Synthesis of Carbonaceous Particles for Preparing Hollow SnO2 Nanospheres and their Bifunctional Li-Storage and Gas-Sensing Properties

Abstract

The templated preparation of hollow nanomaterials has received broad attention. However, many templates are expansive, environmentally-harmful, along with involving a complicated preparation process. Herein, we present a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and simple approach for making carbonaceous particles which have been demonstrated as efficient templates for preparing hollow nanospheres. Natural biomass, such as wheat or corn, is used as the source only, and thus other chemicals are not needed. The carbonaceous particles possess abundant hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, enabling them to efficiently adsorb metal ions in solution. The prepared SnO2 hollow spheres were used in a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery anode, and as the sensing layer of a gas sensor, respectively. After charge–discharge for 200 times at a rate of 1 C, the anodes exhibit a stable capacity of 500 mAh g−1, and a Coulombic efficiency as high as 99%. In addition, the gas sensor based on the SnO2 hollow spheres shows a high sensing performance towards ethanol gas. It is expected that the presented natural biomass-derived particles and their green preparation method will find more applications for broad research fields, including energy-storage and sensors.

Green Synthesis of Metal Oxides Semiconductors for Gas Sensing Applications

“…The sensitivity to all gases was lower than that toward butanol. Moreover, pure SnO 2 and Ag/SnO 2 sensors demonstrated better sensor response to butanol at an operating temperature of 160 Ding et al [221] fabricated the first carbonaceous particles (1 µm in diameter) by hydrothermal synthesis from wheat or corn. Then, they used them as a sacrificial template for preparing hollow SnO 2 nanosphere from tin(IV) chloride.…”

Influence of Laser Energies on the Generation of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles via Laser Ablation in Liquid

“…Among them, metal oxide nanomaterials are employed in a wide range of applications. Nanomaterials are considered for energy conversion and storage, sensors, catalysts, optical devices, and biomedical technologies due to their novel chemical and physical properties, which are greatly affected by their size and morphologies [4,5].…”

A Nanosheet-Assembled SnO2-Integrated Anode

“…Moreover, group IV element Sn in the form of metal oxide (SnO2) has particularly attracted extensive attention as a promising anode material to replace conventional graphitic carbon in current LIBs because of its uniqueness in terms of low cost, safe working potential, high theoretical capacity, and environmental friendliness [15][16][17][18][19]. Nevertheless, the simple structure, relatively low intrinsic conductivity, and vast structural variation during the reversible insertion/deinsertion processes of the bulk SnO2 powder keep it from achieving its full capacitance potential.…”