High Capacity Lithium Ion Battery Anodes Using Sn Nanowires Encapsulated Al₂O₃ Tubes in Carbon Matrix

Abstract

Tin (Sn) is one of the promising anode candidates for next generation applications in lithium ion batteries with high energy densities, but it suffers from drastic volume change (about 260%) upon lithiation. To address this issue, herein an efficient method is reported for coating Sn nanowires with an amorphous Al2O3 layer (Sn‐Al2O3) based on a combination of mechanical pressure injection technique and partial dissolution of the anodic aluminum oxide template. Further, the Sn nanowires coated with Al2O3 are dispersed into carbon matrix (Sn‐Al2O3‐C) by ball milling. In this structure, Al2O3 helps to maintain structural integrity during charge–discharge process, and the introduced carbon matrix enhances electronic conductivity of the overall electrode. As a result, the Sn‐Al2O3‐C nanocomposite exhibits an enhanced cyclic and rate performance, namely, retaining the capacities of 1308.8 mAh g−1 at the current density of 30 mA g−1 after 20 cycles, 1063.3 mAh g−1 at the current density of 200 mA g−1, and 834.2 mAh g−1 at the current density of 500 mA g−1 after 100 cycles.

Research Advances of Amorphous Metal Oxides in Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion

“…In addition to the core–shell nanoparticles, amorphous coating can work on nanowires. A representative work reported on Sn nanowires encapsulated into amorphous Al 2 O 3 tubes, and the Sn–Al 2 O 3 nanowires were further dispersed into a carbon matrix to fabricate Sn–Al 2 O 3 –C nanocomposite . When employed as LIB anodes, enhanced cyclic performance was confirmed by the retained capacity of 834.2 mAh g −1 at 500 mA g −1 after 100 cycles.…”

A Rechargeable Aqueous Sodium‐Ion Battery

“…[20][21][22] They suffer from spontaneous deinsertion reactions, unwanted swelling, undesirable proton insertion and parasitic H 2 evolution reactions, consequently degrading the anode entity during the long run. [23][24][25][26] [23,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33] Here we report an aqueous sodium ion battery with extended cyclability using hydrophobic few layer graphene (FLG) as sodium ion adsorption anode and metal hexacyanoferrate (MHF) as the insertion cathode in aquatic environment. Hydrophobic FLG was produced by the reduction of graphene oxide's (GO) hydrophilic functionalities using Fe powder over conventionally used chemical reducing agents such as hydrazine and NaBH 4 [34,35] which predominantly yielded incompletely reduced GO thereby affecting its electrical and electronic properties.…”

The Use of Anodic Oxides in Practical and Sustainable Devices for Energy Conversion and Storage

“…The use of AAO as a template to drive the synthesis of the other materials was also reported in LIBs [ 153 , 154 , 155 ], SIBs [ 156 ], and Li–S batteries [ 157 ]. Yoo et al [ 153 ] synthesized AAO membranes to prepare SiO 2 hollow nanorods for LIB cathode.…”

“…Li et al [ 154 ] applied AAO to produced 3D nanostructures of LiAlO 2 -modified LiMnPO 4 for LIB cathode. Fang et al [ 155 ] used AAO to fabricate Sn nanowires encapsulated in Al 2 O 3 tubes in a carbon matrix for LIB applications. In a SIB system, Xu et al [ 156 ] synthesized AAO for electrodeposited Ni nanopillar arrays.…”

“…Nanostructured anodic devices present several advantages for rechargeable batteries application. The strategy is to use nanostructure-designed anodic oxide, applying in most of the cases top-down manufacturing to build electrodes can enhance ions’ transport kinetics during the battery operation [ 155 ], providing an orientated transport improvement through the electrodes morphology/architecture [ 154 ]. Otherwise, as discussed in [ 158 , 159 ], if the nanoscale electrode materials match with the wavelength of electrons, phonons, and other material constituents, quantum effects might occur, improving the electrical conductivity.…”