Polycrystalline SnO2 nanotubes prepared via infiltration casting of nanocrystallites and their electrochemical application

In this work we demonstrated that uniform polycrystalline SnO2 nanotubes, in either array or freestanding form, can be fabricated by an infiltration technique using SnO2 nanoparticles as starting building units. With this method, the diameter, length, thickness, and texture of the nanotubes can be further controlled. The tubular SnO2 shows a significant improvement of electrochemical performance over the unorganized nanoparticles. The specific capacity of the Sn-based nanotube electrode was 525 mAh/g after 80 cycles. In principle, the tubular structure of active component can also be extended to other metal oxides and Li-metal alloy systems. In view of their unique features, the prepared SnO2 nanotubes may also find interesting applications in other fields such as gas sensing.