Fabrication and electrochemical performances of SnO2@C composite materials

Abstract SnO2@C composite materials are facilely fabricated by reaction using the gelatin, SnCl4•5H2O and aqueous NH3•H2O by one-step method. Compared to the SnO2, the prepared SnO2@C composite materials show the fabulous improvement about rate performances and cycling performances, when controlling the carbon contents of carbon in SnO2@C composite materials. As an example, SnO2@C-40 shows the cycling performance at 397.7 mAh/g, after carrying out the charge-discharge cycles 500 times at 0.1 A/g. These ameliorated electrochemical performances lead us to consider our provided preparation method is the efficient way to facilitate the application of SnO2@C in fabrication of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) as negative electrode materials.