Fabrication of Highly Ordered Sn Nanowires in Anodic Aluminum Oxide Templates by Using AC Electrochemical Method

Abstract

Sn and its nanostructures are one of the promising candidates to replace graphite in the anode of Lithium-ion batteries due to their higher capacity. One of the challenges, which limited the usage of Sn anodes for the Lithium-ion batteries, is Tin's high volumetric strain and its low cyclability. On the other hand, nanostructures show lower volume change during charge/discharge and as a result could address the cyclability issues. In this research, an alternating current (AC) electrochemical method is developed in order to facilitate the industrial scale production of Sn nanowires. The developed electrodeposition technique shows reliable controllability over chemical composition and crystalline structure of Sn nanowires. Also, the order structure of nanowires could be adjusted more accurately in comparison to conventional fabrication techniques. As a result, the Sn nanowires as well as Aluminum Oxide templates synthesized by using the developed electrochemical method are examined due to their morphology, chemical composition, and their crystalline structure in order to develop a practical relation between electrochemical composition of the solution and materials properties of Sn nanowires. The results show that the proposed electrodeposition method maintains a highly-ordered morphology as well as industrially acceptable controllability over crystalline structure of nanowires, which could be used to optimize the procedure for industrial applications due to low cost and simple experimental setup.