Fabrication of multilayer graphene-encapsulated Sn/SnO2 nanocomposite as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries and its electrochemical properties

Abstract

Sn/SnO2 nanocomposite of core-shell structure covered with multilayer graphene was synthesized by one step process of electrical wire explosion in liquid media. The synthesized Sn/SnO2 nanocomposites were characterized by various analyzers such as Raman, XRD, FESEM, FETEM, XPS and TGA. The electrochemical performance of the electrode has been investigated by galvanostatic cycling and cyclic voltammetry. FESEM and FETEM results showed that diameter of the Sn/SnO2 nanoparticles is around 10-50 nm and the thickness of the SnO2 shell is about 5-8 nm. The nanocomposite electrode showed a high specific capacity of 1270 mAhg(-1) after 100 cycles. Furthermore, the nanocomposite exhibited high reversible capacity of around 650 mAhg(-1) at the current density of 5000 mAg(-1). These results indicated that multilayer graphene-encapsulated Sn/SnO2 nanocomposites are one of rational structural design to improve the electrochemical performance of Sn-based anode materials for LIBs.