Hydrothermal synthesis of mesoporous SnO2 as a stabilized anode material of lithium-ion batteries

As an alternative high-capacity anode material of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), tin oxide (SnO2) is still puzzled by its low initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) and rapid capacity decay. In this study, the mesoporous SnO2 nanomaterials with stabilized lithium storage performances are synthesized by a hydrothermal method mediated glucose as a soft-template and following calcination under air. The influence of different tin sources and resultant microstructure on the performances of SnO2 are systematically characterized. The as-prepared SnO2 using SnCl4·5H2O as tin source (denoted as SnO2-1) delivers an initial discharge/charge capacity of 1790/980 mAh g−1 and keeps at 899/880 mAh g−1 with CE of 98% until the 50th cycle at 0.1 A g−1. It delivers an initial discharge/charge capacity of 1444/819 mAh g−1 and retains the capacity of 470 mAh g−1 until 100 cycles at 0.5 A g−1 and 320 mAh g−1 at 2.0 A g−1 in the rate performance measurements, whereas the reference SnO2 (denoted as SnO2-2) synthesized using Na2SnO3·2H2O as tin source exhibits an undesirable electrochemical performance. The super capacity stability and rate capability of SnO2-1 is ascribed to the mesoporous structure, tiny crystal size, larger mesopore volume, and larger specific surface area. The results show an important insight and evidence to improve lithium storage performance of metal oxide anodes, and the hydrothermal mediated glucose as soft-template method supplies a promising pathway to synthesize the stabilized SnO2 anodes of LIBs.