Preparation and electrochemical properties of Sn/C composites

Abstract The metal tin (Sn), as one potential anode material for lithium‐ion batteries, rapidly degrades its cyclic performance due to huge volume expansion/contraction during lithium intercalation/de‐intercalation process. Amorphous carbon was adopted as conductive and buffer matrix to form Sn/C composites. The products were prepared by hydrothermal reaction and carbothermal reduction using tin tetrachloride and glucose as raw materials. The composites were characterized by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements. The results show that relative smaller metallic tin particles in 1:8 Sn/C composite are formed and distributed more uniformly in the carbon matrix. The lithium intercalation capacity of Sn/C composites reaches 820.4 mAh·g −1 , and the capacity retention over 60 cycles remains 54.1%. 1:8 Sn/C composite exhibits enhanced rate performance and cyclic stability compared to 1:5 and 1:10 samples.