Facile preparation of one-dimensional hollow tin dioxide@carbon nanocomposite for lithium-ion battery anode

To improve the lithium storage performance of SnO2 anode for lithium-ion batteries, a one-dimensional hollow nanostructured SnO2@C composite has been synthesized by a well-designed facile approach. The good conductive and flexible carbon component can not only enhance the conductivity of whole composite but also buffer the volume change of key SnO2 component. With thin shells, meanwhile, the hollow structure can not only provide free space for accommodating the SnO2 volume change, but also shorten the diffusion length for both lithiun-ions and electrons. As expectedly, the synergistic effect of carbon and hollow structure offers the as-prepared SnO2@C composite with good structural stability and electrochemical properties. Consequently, the as-prepared SnO2@C composite exhibits good cycling and superior rate performance as an anode for lithium-ion batteries, a high capacity of 797 mAh g−1 is obtained at 200 mA g−1 after 390 cycles as well as 972, 887, 836, 751, 668, and 606 mAh g−1 can be obtained at 100, 300, 500, 1000, 2000, and 3000 mA g−1, respectively. Thus good performance offers the as-prepared SnO2@C composite great promising for a high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries.