Effect of rapid thermal annealing on the charge storage kinetics of conductive N-doped SnO2 thin film anodes for Li-ion batteries

Abstract

This study focuses on the fabrication of a flexible thin film electrode composed of N-doped tin oxide (SnO2: N). The fabrication process involves sputtering SnO2 onto a Cu foil sheet using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, conducted under an N2 atmosphere. The deposited thin films are subsequently exposed to annealing treatment using rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at temperatures ranging from 200 to 400 °C. The primary objective of this study is to get an understanding of the effects of N-doping, annealing temperature on the growth of SnO2: N. as well as the influence of film thickness on the crystallographic state. We evaluate their thin-film anode performance for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The specific capacity of the as-deposited SnO2 thin films standing at 859 mAh g−1 when measured at 1 mA g−1. This enhanced capacity is attributed to the limited crystal growth in ultrathin SnO2, a factor that effectively combats electrode degradation while simultaneously improving the lithium-ion diffusion coefficient and electron kinetics of the electrode. However, the SnO2: N film that undergoes annealing at 400 °C demonstrates remarkable cyclic retention, reaching 82 %. This improvement is due to the enhanced electrical conductivity resulting from annealing, which prevents the aggregation of tin (Sn) and effectively accommodates the volume changes that occur in prolonged cycles. Additionally, this synchronized approach involving sputtering and RTA is proving to be a simple, efficient, and scalable method. It holds the potential to emerge as a valuable strategy to produce anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.