Tin nanoparticles encapsulated in graphene backboned carbonaceous foams as high-performance anodes for lithium-ion and sodium-ion storage

A new type of hierarchical tin@carbon composite composed of graphene carbonaceous matrix and well-confined tin nanoparticles with a typical size of similar to 15 nm (denoted as F-G/Sn@C) is developed and investigated as anode material for Li-ion and Na-ion storage. The two dimensional graphene backboned matrix not only acts as a confinement layer preventing the tin nanoparticles from aggregating during the material preparation, but also functions as a physical barrier to buffer the volume change effect during charge/discharge processes. As a consequence, the composite demonstrates excellent rate performance and cycling stability for both Li-ion and Na-ion storage. In particular, the F-G/Sn@C anode exhibits an impressive reversible capacity of 506 mAh g(-1) even after 500 cycles and a high-rate capacity of 270 mAh g(-1) even at 3200 mA g(-1) for Li-ion storage. Moreover, a reversible Na-ion storage capacity of 413 mAh g(-1) with negligible fading is also achieved. The remarkable electrochemical performance, together with the facile synthetic approach for large scale production, enables such material as a highly attractive tin-based anode for next generation rechargeable batteries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.