One-pot synthesis of core-shell structured Sn/carbon nanotube by chemical vapor deposition and its Li-storage properties

Core-shell structured Sn/carbon nanotube (CNT) was prepared by one-pot chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method in N-2/C2H2 (10% C2H2) using nanosized SnO2 as the starting material. The obtained one-dimensional material is composed of a disordered carbon shell and a single-crystalline Sn nanorod core. The diameter of the Sn nanorod and the thickness of the carbon shell are around 40-50 and 4-5 nm, respectively, when the CVD reaction was carried out at 650 degrees C for 2 h. The core-shell structured Sn/CNT exhibits improved electrochemical performance compared with bare Sn with a diameter of around 100 nm. A reversible capacity of around 350 mAh/g can be retained after 20 cycles at 50 mA/g for Sn/CNT, while for bare Sn, the capacity drops rapidly to 100 mAh/g after the same cycles.