SnO₂ Nanoparticles with Controlled Carbon Nanocoating as High-Capacity Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

We demonstrate a facile route for the scalable synthesis of SnO2 nanoparticles with controlled carbon nanocoating for use as high-capacity anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. SnO2 nanoparticles with size in the range of 6 −10 nm are produced via a simple hydrothermal method with high yield, which are then encapsulated by a carbon layer through a modified method. The weight fraction of carbon present in the final product can be readily tuned by varying the concentration of glucose used during the hydrothermal coating process. A systematic study has been carried out to examine the effect of carbon content upon lithium-ion battery performance. It is found that the optimized SnO2@carbon nanoparticles manifest excellent lithium storage properties. As an example, SnO2@carbon with 8 wt % carbon can deliver a capacity as high as 631 mA h g−1 even after 100 charge/discharge cycles at a current drain of 400 mA g−1.

Superior cycle performance of Sn@C/graphene nanocomposite as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries

“…The elemental analysis indicates that the carbon content of the Sn@C/graphene is about 46.87%, which is much higher than the graphene content (about 18.32%) that we added during the preparation. This result proves that after the hydrothermal process, the glucose converts to disordered carbon and the disordered carbon was successfully coated on the composite [6,26]. Fig.…”

“…However, the energy density and power density of lithiumion batteries still lies behind the demands of consumers. To improve the electrochemical performances of lithium-ion batteries many new electrode materials have been exploited to obtain such batteries with high energy density, long cycle life, as well as eco-friendliness [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Among the developed anode materials, metallic tin (Sn) is considered to be a promising anode material because of its high theoretical specific capacity of $992 mAh g À 1 , which is much higher than that of the commercial graphite (372 mAh g À 1 ).…”

Evaluating the performance of nanostructured materials as lithium-ion battery electrodes

“…Carbon coated SnO2 particles offer an insight into the effectiveness of the carbon additive, displaying enhanced cycling characteristics [79][80][81][82][83][84], while Sn/C composites have shown high performance with stable capacities reported over hundreds of cycles [85], and considerable performance increase over bulk Sn [86]. Carbon-coated Sn particles encapsulated in hollow nanofibres, for example, displayed high capacity with minimal capacity fade (Fig.…”

Anodes – Materials for negative electrodes in electrochemical energy technology

“…Substantial problems in actual application result from the significant shape change of tin electrodes during charging and discharging [69]. Attempts have been reported to meet this challenge by preparing nanosized particles [70] or by incorporating tin (or its oxide SnO 2 ) in suitable host structures [71,[72][73][74][75][76].…”