We have prepared Ag Fe Sn composite alloy powders as anode material for lithium ion batteries using mechanical alloying method. These powers with a size of several micrometers are mainly composed of b Sn, Ag 3 Sn, and Fe phases. The experimental results revealed that a rational substitution of Fe for Ag induced a significant improvement of the cycling performance of the ternary alloy electrodes. Some ternary alloy electrodes were found to be capable of keeping a reversible capacity of 270 Ah/kg over 300 cycles, which were better than that of the Fe free binary alloy electrodes. The structural changes of the Ag 26 Fe 26 Sn 48 electrode during charge discharge cycling were examined by X ray diffraction analyses. The results reveal that the composite alloy consisting of b Sn and Ag 3 Sn phases transforms mostly into that of ternary lithiated phase during Li insertion, and recovers to one involving b Sn, Ag 3 Sn and residual Ag 2 LiSn or AgLi 2 Sn phases after Li extraction. In this type of lithiation/delithiation process, the composite alloy electrode suffers from a moderate volumetric variation, which is beneficial for the improvement of the cycle life.
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