SnO2 Nanowires on Carbon Nanotube Film as a High Performance Anode Material for Flexible Li-ion Batteries

Today, Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are the most common rechargeable batteries used in electronic devices. SnO2 with theoretical specific capacity of 782 mAh/g is among the best anode materials for LIBs. In this report, Three-dimensional SnO2 nanowires (NWs) on carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film (SnO2 / CNT) is fabricated using a combination of vacuum filtration and thermal evaporation techniques. The resulting 3D heterostructure SnO2/CNT was characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This fabricated SnO2/CNT electrode has been tested as a flexible and binder-free anode for LIB, which exhibits high initial discharge/charge capacity of 4.8/2.25 mAh/cm2 at a current density of 0.25 A/g, much larger than discharge/charge capacity of bare CNT film (2.2/0.3 mAh/cm2). Relatively high areal capacity of 1.23 mAh/cm2 has been achieved for the fabricated LIB with SnO2/CNT electrode after 20 cycles, proposing this material as a high performance flexible LIB anode material.