Marine shrimp/tin waste as a negative electrode for rechargeable sodium-ion batteries

This work aims to valorize the shrimp wastes as a template for obtaining nanoparticulate tin battery electrodes. Using shrimp waste skins is possible to get a network material made of nanominerals (NMN) with elements such as Ca, Mg, Na, and Al and containing a rich source of nitrogen. Three different electrode materials prepared under different conditions validated this study. Shrimp wastes (SW), SW-tin prepared at room temperature (ST-RT) and SW-tin prepared by carbothermal reduction (ST-CT) are studied. 119Sn Mössbauer spectroscopy determined the atomic fraction is 59.5 and 40.5% of SnO2 and β-Sn co-existing in the ST-CT sample. SEM and TEM micrographs confirmed a particle size of 2–5 nm of tin-based materials homogeneously distributed on the NMN matrix. Electrochemical investigation in Na-half cells demonstrated superior electrochemical performance of ST-CT with 162 mA h g−1 reversible capacity which can be retained at 60% over 200 cycles under different rates (C/10 to 2 C). The SW and ST-RT displayed the worse reversible capacities. Eventually, a Na-ion full cell is assembled versus Na3V2(PO4)3 showing good properties in terms of energy density.