Free-Standing SnO2@rGO Anode via the Anti-solvent-assisted Precipitation for Superior Lithium Storage Performance

Shuli Jiang; Ruiming Huang; Wenchang Zhu; Xiangyi Li; Yue Zhao; Zhixiang Gao; Lijun Gao; Jianqing Zhao

doi:10.3389/fchem.2019.00878

Free-Standing SnO₂@rGO Anode via the Anti-solvent-assisted Precipitation for Superior Lithium Storage Performance

Front Chem. 2019 Dec 19:7:878. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2019.00878. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Shuli Jiang^{1

2}, Ruiming Huang³, Wenchang Zhu^{1

2}, Xiangyi Li^{1

2}, Yue Zhao^{1

2}, Zhixiang Gao^{1

2}, Lijun Gao^{1

2}, Jianqing Zhao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Energy, Soochow Institute for Energy and Materials Innovations, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Advanced Carbon Materials and Wearable Energy Technologies of Jiangsu Province, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Rutgers-Newark, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, United States.

Abstract

Metal oxides have been attractive as high-capacity anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. However, oxide anodes encounter drastic volumetric changes during lithium ion storage through the conversion reaction and alloying/dealloying processes, leading to rapid capacity decay and poor cycling stability. Here, we report a free-standing SnO₂@reduced graphene oxide (SnO₂@rGO) composite anode, in which SnO₂ nanoparticles are tightly wrapped within wrinkled rGO sheets. The SnO₂@rGO sheet is assembled in high porosity via an anti-solvent-assisted precipitation of dispersed SnO₂ nanoparticles and graphene oxide sheets in the distilled water, followed by the filtration and post-annealing processes. Significantly enhanced lithium storage performance has been obtained of the SnO₂@rGO anode compared with the bare SnO₂ anode material. A high charge capacity above 700 mAh g^-1 can be achieved with a satisfying 95.6% retention after 50 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g^-1, superior to reserved 126 mAh g^-1 and a much lower 16.8% retention of the bare SnO₂ anode. XRD pattern and HRTEM images of the cycled SnO₂@rGO anode material verify the expected oxidation of Sn to SnO₂ at the fully-charged state in the 50th cycle. In addition, FESEM and TEM images reveal the well-preserved free-standing structure after cycling, which accounts for high reversible capacity and excellent cycling stability of such a SnO₂@rGO anode. This work provides a promising SnO₂-based anode for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, together with an effective fabrication adoptable to prepare different free-standing composite materials for device applications.

Keywords: SnO2; anti-solvent-assisted precipitation; free-standing anode; lithium-ion battery; rGO.