Abstract
Sn-based oxide materials as an anode of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) suffer from the unavoidable mechanical stress originated from huge volume changes during lithiation/delithiation reactions. We synthesized the hierarchical SnO nanobranches (NBs) decorated with Sn nanoparticles on Cu current collector using a vapor transport method. The Sn-decorated SnO NBs as an anode of LIB showed good electrochemical performance with high reversible capacity retention of as high as 502 mAh/g and rate capability of 455 mAh/g at a current density of 2.0 A/g after 50 cycles. Through the morphological and crystal structure analyses after the charge and discharge processes, it was found that the morphology of Sn-decorated SnO NBs was transformed to nanoporous layered-structure, composed of Sn and lithium oxide, during the repeated lithiation/delithiation reactions. The free-volume of Sn-decorated SnO NBs and nanoporous layered-structure effectively accommodate the huge volume changes and enhance the electrochemical cyclability by facilitating the diffusion of Li-ions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40580-016-0070-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
1 Background Rechargeable lithium ion batteries have been widely used as energy sources for portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, cameras, and lap-top computers
Graphite has been commercialized as an anode material of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its low operating voltage and excellent cyclability, its Li storage capacity is limited to the theoretical maximum capacity of 372 mAh/g [4]
A more detailed description of the structural characteristics can be found in our previous report [22]
Summary
Rechargeable lithium ion batteries have been widely used as energy sources for portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, cameras, and lap-top computers. LIBs are considered one of the most promising candidates for a generation large-scale power source, i.e., electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), because of their high energy density and good cyclability [1]. Many critical challenges related to the improvement of LIB performance must still be addressed [2, 3]. The energy density of the anode should be improved to meet the increasing demand for LIBs with higher energy density and power density. Graphite has been commercialized as an anode material of LIBs due to its low operating voltage and excellent cyclability, its Li storage capacity is limited to the theoretical maximum capacity of 372 mAh/g [4].
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