Synthesis of porous SnO2 nanospheres and their application for lithium-ion battery

Porous SnO2 nanospheres have been successfully fabricated through hydrothermal synthesis followed by annealing. Precursor nanospheres were synthesized by reaction of SnCl2 center dot 2H(2)O and C2H2O4 center dot 2H(2)O and SnO2 nanospheres were obtained through annealing of precursor. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) respectively. The results indicated that these SnO2 nanospheres of 300 nm in diameters are composed of numerous nanoparticles around 20-35 nm. Their electrochemical properties and application as anode for lithium-ion battery were evaluated by galvanostatic discharge-charge testing and cycling voltammetry. Porous SnO2 nanospheres exhibited improved discharge capacity of 522 inA h g(-1) up to 30th cycle at of 0.1 C. Tentative cause of such an improvement in electrochemical performance has been proposed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.