Boron-doped, carbon-coated SnO2/graphene nanosheets for enhanced lithium storage

Heteroatom doping is an effective method to adjust the electrochemical behavior of carbonaceous materials. In this work, boron-doped, carbon-coated SnO2 /graphene hybrids (BCTGs) were fabricated by hydrothermal carbonization of sucrose in the presence of SnO2/graphene nanosheets and phenylboronic acid or boric acid as dopant source and subsequent thermal treatment. Owing to their unique 2D core-shell architecture and B-doped carbon shells, BCTGs have enhanced conductivity and extra active sites for lithium storage. With phenylboronic acid as B source, the resulting hybrid shows outstanding electrochemical performance as the anode in lithium-ion batteries with a highly stable capacity of 1165 mA h g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1) after 360 cycles and an excellent rate capability of 600 mA h g(-1) at 3.2 A g(-1), and thus outperforms most of the previously reported SnO2-based anode materials.