Assembled hollow and core-shell SnO2 microspheres as anode materials for Li-ion batteries

SnO2 microspheres with controllable morphology were prepared via a hydrothermal-annealing method. The SnO2 morphology can be tuned by using AlOOH sol and γ-Al2O3 as additive. The hollow SnO2 microspheres with incomplete core-shell structure prepared with small amount of γ-Al2O3 presented the best cycling performance in Li-ion battery, exhibiting a specific capacity of 374.2mAhg−1 up to 100cycles. The superior performance can be mainly attributed to the formation of more and smaller SnO2 hollow microspheres and partial core-shell SnO2 microspheres resulting from the γ-Al2O3 condensation nucleus. The unique hollow and core-shell composite structure of SnO2 is capable of reducing the volume changes during Li insertion–extraction.