As an anode material in lithium ion battery,the Sn-Co/C composite electrode materials have been successfully synthesized by hydrothermal and sol-gel methods,respectively.The resultant composites were mainly composed of Sn-based oxides,nanometer Sn-Co alloy and carbon.Carbon and Co,acting as buffer materials,can accommodate to the large volume change of active Sn during the discharge-charge process,thus improving the cycling stability.Although charge/discharge curves revealed the excellent cycle performance for samples synthesized by both methods,composites obtained by the sol-gel showed a better dispersion effect of nanoparticles on the carbon matrix and possessed much more improved stable capacity with*624.9 mAh g-1over 100 cycles and that by hydrothermal method only exhibited*299.3 mAh g-1.Therefore,the Sn-Co/C composites obtained by sol-gel synthesis method could be a perfect candidate for anode material of Li-ion storage battery.
Xiaoli ZouXianhua HouZhibo ChengYanling HuangMin YueShejun Hu
To understand the influence of structure and atom sites on the electrochemical properties of Sn-based anode materials,the lithium intercalation–deintercalation mechanisms into SnNi2Cu and SnNiCu2phases were studied using the first-principle plane wave pseudo-potential method.Calculation results showed that both SnNi2Cu and SnNiCu2were unsuitable anode materials for lithium ion batteries.The Sn-based anode structure related to the number of interstitial sites,theoretical specific capacity,and volume expansion ratio.Different atom sites led to different forces at interstitial sites,resulting in variations in formation energy,density of states,and hybrid orbital types.In order to validate the calculated model,the SnNi2Cu alloy anode material was synthesized through a chemical reduction-codeposition approach.Experimental results proved that the theoretical design was reasonable.Consequently,when selecting Snbased alloy anodes,attention should be paid to maximizing the number of interstitial sites and distributing atoms reasonably to minimize forces at these sites and facilitate the intercalation and deintercalation of lithium ion.
