Novel electrospun SnO2@carbon nanofibers as high performance anodes for lithium‐ion batteries

Abstract

SnO2@carbon (SnO2@C) nanofibers (NFs) have been prepared by electrospinning method and evaluated as anodes in lithium‐ion battery half cells. XRD were carried out to provide further information about the structure of the as‐prepared NFs, and all the peaks can be readily indexed to the rutile phase SnO2 (JCPDS No. 41–1445). Electrochemical characterization by galvanostatic charge‐discharge tests shows that the NF anodes have first discharge capacities of 1375.5 mA h g−1 at 80 mA g−1current density. This excellent Li‐ion storage capability of SnO2 NFs is probably resulting from protection of amorphous carbon and the synergy arising from that the ultrafine SnO2 particles embedded in the carbon nanofiber (CNF) matrix: the nanometer‐sized SnO2@C NFs can provide not only negligible diffusion times of ions thus faster phase transitions but also enough space to buffer the volume changes during the lithium insertion and extraction reactions. The highly dispersed NFs are expected to be applied as attractive anodes for lithium‐ion batteries.