Pipe-Wire TiO2–Sn@Carbon Nanofibers Paper Anodes for Lithium and Sodium Ion Batteries

Metallic tin has been considered as one of the most promising anode materials both for lithium (LIBs) and sodium ion battery (NIBs) because of a high theoretical capacity and an appropriate low discharge potential. However, Sn anodes suffer from a rapid capacity fading during cycling due to pulverization induced by severe volume changes. Here we innovatively synthesized pipe-wire TiO₂-Sn@carbon nanofibers (TiO₂-Sn@CNFs) via electrospinning and atomic layer deposition to suppress pulverization-induced capacity decay. In pipe-wire TiO₂-Sn@CNFs paper, nano-Sn is uniformly dispersed in carbon nanofibers, which not only act as a buffer material to prevent pulverization, but also serve as a conductive matrix. In addition, TiO₂ pipe as the protection shell outside of Sn@carbon nanofibers can restrain the volume variation to prevent Sn from aggregation and pulverization during cycling, thus increasing the Coulombic efficiency. The pipe-wire TiO₂-Sn@CNFs show excellent electrochemical performance as anodes for both LIBs and NIBs. It exhibits a high and stable capacity of 643 mA h/g at 200 mA/g after 1100 cycles in LIBs and 413 mA h/g at 100 mA/g after 400 cycles in NIBs. These results would shed light on the practical application of Sn-based materials as a high capacity electrode with good cycling stability for next-generation LIBs and NIBs.