Tin-based negative electrodes with oxygen vacancies embedded through aluminothermic treatment process for lithium-ion battery materials

To develop the urgent requirement for high-rate electrodes in next-generation lithium-ion batteries, SnO2-based negative materials have been spotlighted as potential alternatives. However, the intrinsic problems, such as unremarkable conductivity and conspicuous volume variation, make the rate capability behave badly at a fixed current density. Here, to solve these issues, we demonstrate a new and facile strategy for enhancing their cyclic stability, and a kind of rutile SnO2-x nanoparticles with abundant oxygen vacancies (OVs) is fabricated through a hydrothermal process combined with aluminothermic treatment method without carbon coating. In addition, the growth of initial grains is restrained after aluminothermic treatment, which also reduces the unexpected polarization of negative electrodes. As a result, the as-synthesized SnO2-x anode material reveals a remarkable reversible capacity of 380 mAh g(-1) at 0.5 A g(-1) and exhibits promising capacity of 267 mAh g(-1) at 2.0 A g(-1). The improved capabilities and cycling life can be ascribed to the positive effect of introducing OVs. Moreover, the strategy has an important role in the design of tin-based negative materials of the next-generation lithium-ion batteries.