Growth of SnO2 Nanoflowers on N-doped Carbon Nanofibers as Anode for Li- and Na-ion Batteries

It is urgent to solve the problems of the dramatic volume expansion and pulverization of SnO₂ anodes during cycling process in battery systems. To address this issue, we design a hybrid structure of N-doped carbon fibers@SnO₂ nanoflowers (NC@SnO₂) to overcome it in this work. The hybrid NC@SnO₂ is synthesized through the hydrothermal growth of SnO₂ nanoflowers on the surface of N-doped carbon fibers obtained by electrospinning. The NC is introduced not only to provide a support framework in guiding the growth of the SnO₂ nanoflowers and prevent the flower-like structures from agglomeration, but also serve as a conductive network to accelerate electronic transmission along one-dimensional structure effectively. When the hybrid NC@SnO₂ was served as anode, it exhibits a high discharge capacity of 750 mAh g^-1 at 1 A g^-1 after 100 cycles in Li-ion battery and 270 mAh g^-1 at 100 mA g^-1 for 100 cycles in Na-ion battery, respectively.