In Situ Synthesis of the Peapod‐Like Cu–SnO₂@Copper Foam as Anode with Excellent Cycle Stability and High Area Specific Capacity

Abstract

The theoretical specific capacity of tin oxide (SnO2) anode material is more than twice that of graphite material (782 vs 372 mAh g–1), whereas its potential usage is limited fatally by its huge volume expansion during lithiation. An effective solution is to encapsulate tin oxide into hollow structure such as yolk‐shell based on the principle of confinement. However, in light of the restricted space of active substance, this kind of hollow electrode always has the low capacity, severely limiting its commercial value. Herein, a peapod‐like Cu‐SnO2@copper foam (CF) as high area specific capacity anode based on the Kirkendall effect, in which the “pod and peas” in the peapod‐like structure are composed of SnO2 and Cu nanoparticles, respectively, is tactfully designed and constructed. Compared to other SnOx‐based electrodes with different hollow structure designs in published reports, the unique peapod‐like Cu‐SnO2@CF anode delivers a remarkably high first reversible capacity of 5.80 mAh cm‐2 as well as excellent cycle stability with 66.7% capacity retention and ≈100% coulombic efficiency after 200 cycles at a current density of 1 mA cm–2, indicative of its quite promising application toward high‐performance lithium‐ion batteries.

Geometric Engineering of Porous PtCu Nanotubes with Ultrahigh Methanol Oxidation and Oxygen Reduction Capability

“…The Cu 2p 3/2 and Cu 2p 1/2 peaks are split to Cu 0 and Cu 2+ . Compared to the binding energy measured on bulk Cu (931.8 and 951.6 eV), [33] the Cu 0 2p of H-PNTs, A-PNTs, and S-PNTs shift positively by 0.40, 0.70, and 0.43 eV, respectively. H-PNTs show an obvious satellite peak owing to the oxidation of surficial Cu in the air, while the oxidation could be hardly seen in A-PNTs and S-PNTs due to the high surficial Pt content.…”

Rational design of PANI‐modified three‐dimensional dendritic hierarchical porous Cu–Sn nanocomposites as thick anodes with ultrahigh areal capacity and good cycling stability

“…It is clear that the 1st discharge and charge processes deliver significantly large areal capacities of 16.18 and 13.89 mAh cm −2 , respectively, with initial CE as high as 85.8%, implying the markedly less irreversible Li + consumption during the 1st cycle, which is, to the best of our knowledge, rarely seen in common Sn-based electrodes. 28,36,38,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54] Moreover, two obvious discharge and charge plateaus at ca. 0.1 and 0.7 V (vs. Li/Li + ) can be observed after the 1st cycle, assigning to the reversible electrochemical alloying and dealloying processes of Sn reacting with Li + , as depicted by Equations ( 3) and (4).…”

Monolithic three‐dimensional hollow nanoporous CuxO encapsulated mesoporous Cu heterostructures with superior Li storage properties

“…[43][44][45] Especially, the heterostructure obtained by combining TMOs (including Cu x O) and metal Cu with better electrical conductivity than carbon materials can significantly facilitate the achievement of excellent electrochemical properties. [46][47][48] For example, in our previous study, 49 the 1D hollow SnO 2 on copper foam skeleton was successfully prepared by Kirkendall effect with good electrochemical performance, exhibiting initial reversible capacity as high as 5.80 mAh cm À2 and capacity retention of 66.7% at the 200th cycle (1 mA cm À2 current density). However, the use of copper foam heavily increases the electrode weight and thus markedly reduces the energy density of batteries.…”