SnO2@C nanowires as high-performance anodic materials for lithium-ion batteries

• SnO 2 @C nanowires is prepared by a facile simple way of electrospinning method. • The nanowires buffer the volume change of SnO 2 during charge/discharge process. • The SnO 2 @C electrode deliver high capacity and excellent cycle. SnO 2 @Carbon (SnO 2 @C) nanowires were prepared using the method electrospinning. After the heat treatment of the SnCl 2 /polyvinypyrrolidone nanofibers, SnO 2 nanoparticles (~20 nm) were uniformly embedded and distributed on the surface of carbon nanowires. The SnO 2 @C manifested a strong synergistic effect that originated from its wrapped nanoarchitecture, which was proved to be highly conductive with small volume change. This SnO 2 @C nanowires shown high reversible capacity and excellent cycling performance of 680 mAh g −1 at 100 mA g −1 after 50 cycles.