Self-Assembled Cu-Sn-S Nanotubes with High (De)Lithiation Performance

Jie Lin; Jin-Myoung Lim; Duck Hyun Youn; Kenta Kawashima; Jun-Hyuk Kim; Yang Liu; Hang Guo; Graeme Henkelman; Adam Heller; Charles Buddie Mullins

doi:10.1021/acsnano.7b05294

Self-Assembled Cu-Sn-S Nanotubes with High (De)Lithiation Performance

ACS Nano. 2017 Oct 24;11(10):10347-10356. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.7b05294. Epub 2017 Sep 19.

Authors

Jie Lin^{1

2}, Jin-Myoung Lim³, Duck Hyun Youn^{2

4}, Kenta Kawashima², Jun-Hyuk Kim², Yang Liu^{2

5}, Hang Guo¹, Graeme Henkelman³, Adam Heller², Charles Buddie Mullins^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Pen-Tung Sah Micro-Nano Science and Technology Institute, Xiamen University , Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China.
² Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, Center for Electrochemistry, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712-0231, United States.
³ Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712-0165, United States.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Kangwon National University , Chuncheon, Gangwon-do 24341, South Korea.
⁵ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University , Changsha, Hunan 410083, China.
⁶ Texas Materials Institute, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712-1591, United States.

PMID: 28898580
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.7b05294

Abstract

Through a gelation-solvothermal method without heteroadditives, Cu-Sn-S composites self-assemble to form nanotubes, sub-nanotubes, and nanoparticles. The nanotubes with a Cu_3-4SnS₄ core and Cu₂SnS₃ shell can tolerate long cycles of expansion/contraction upon lithiation/delithiation, retaining a charge capacity of 774 mAh g^-1 after 200 cycles with a high initial Coulombic efficiency of 82.5%. The importance of the Cu component for mitigation of the volume expansion and structural evolution upon lithiation is informed by density functional theory calculations. The self-generated template and calculated results can inspire the design of analogous Cu-M-S (M = metal) nanotubes for lithium batteries or other energy storage systems.

Keywords: copper tin sulfide; core−shell; density functional theory; gelation−solvothermal; lithium battery; nanotube.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.