Anodic nanoporous SnO2 grown on Cu foils as superior binder-free Na-ion battery anodes

We present a convenient, low-cost strategy to fabricate one-dimensional, vertically oriented nanoporous assembly of SnO2 upon a Cu substrate as a potentially promising anode system for Na-ion batteries application. The major novelty of the fabrication stage resides in anodizing a Sn/Cu bilayer film that is created by a facile cold-rolling procedure amenable to large-scale production. The open, nanoporous morphology of SnO2 facilitates the diffusion of electrolytes to access the SnO2 surface. The high porosity of the SnO2 phase also provides large void space to effectively accommodate the volume expansion/contraction during sodiation/desodiation. As a result, the 1-D nanoporous SnO2 thus assembled on the Cu substrate can be directly used as an effective electrode system for Na-ion storage–without the need for additives, delivering a remarkable capacity of 326 mA h g−1 over 200 cycles at a current rate of 0.2 C.