Highly conductive coaxial SnO2-In2O3 heterostructured nanowires for li ion battery electrodes

Novel SnO2-ln(2)O(3) heterostructured nanowires were produced via a thermal evaporation method, and their possible nucleation/growth mechanism is proposed. We found that the electronic conductivity of the individual SnO2-ln(2)O(3) nanowires was 2 orders of magnitude better than that of the pure SnO2 nanowires, due to the formation of Sn-doped ln(2)O(3) caused by the incorporation of Sn into the ln(2)O(3) lattice during the nucleation and growth of the ln(2)O(3) shell nanostructures. This provides the SnO2-ln(2)O(3) nanowires with an outstanding lithium storage capacity, making them suitable for promising Li ion battery electrodes.