Effect of NaOH molarities to the microstructure and sodium storage performance of the Sn-MOF derived SnO2 microporous rod

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrated a facile method to prepare a novel SnO2 microporous rod with various microstructures by controlling NaOH molarities in precursor synthesis processes. Four different molarities of NaOH solution (0.005 M, 0.048 M, 0.12 M and 0.5 M) were used together with o-phthalic acid in Sn-MOF synthesis to determine the effect of ligand [o-C6H4 ] concentration on microstructure evolution. It was found that increasing NaOH molarity can effectively decrease the size of Sn-MOF rods. Then, the SnO2 microporous rods were obtained by calcinating the as-prepared Sn-MOF as microstructures. Under an optimized experimental condition (NaOH molarity of 0.12 M), the SnO2 rods shows a modest initial coulombic efficiency of 61.3% with a high reversible sodium storage capacity of 503 mAh g−1 after 150 cycles at 50 mA g−1. Moreover, an impressive reversible sodium storage capacity of 206 mAh g−1 can be obtained at long-term cycling performance (800 cycles at current density of 2 A g−1). Effects of morphologies to electrochemical performances have been further discussed in aspects of intrinsic resistance, pseudocapacitive contribution, surface area and porous structure and microstructural stability, and the enhanced electrochemical performance could be attributed to factors of enhanced pseudocapacitive charge contribution, optimized microstructures, and structural stability, which ensure the SnO2−0.12 M to have a good rate performance and cyclability. This nanoscale-engineering method adopted here could be a promising path to fabricate SnO2-based anodes with novel microstructures for sodium storage applications.