A High-Capacity and Long-Cycle-Life Lithium-Ion Battery Anode Architecture: Silver Nanoparticle-Decorated SnO₂/NiO...

The combination of high-capacity and long-term cyclability has always been regarded as the first priority for next generation anode materials in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). To meet these requirements, the Ag nanoparticle decorated mesoporous SnO₂/NiO nanotube (m-SNT) anodes were synthesized via an electrospinning process, followed by fast ramping rate calcination and subsequent chemical reduction in this work. The one-dimensional porous hollow structure effectively alleviates a large volume expansion during cycling as well as provides a short lithium-ion duffusion length. Furthermore, metallic nickel (Ni) nanoparticles converted from the NiO nanograins during the lithiation process reversibly decompose Li₂O during delithiation process, which significantly improves the reversible capacity of the m-SNT anodes. In addition, Ag nanoparticles uniformly decorated on the m-SNT via a simple chemical reduction process significantly improve rate capability and also contribute to long-term cyclability. The m-SNT@Ag anodes exhibited excellent cycling stability without obvious capacity fading after 500 cycles with a high capacity of 826 mAh g^-1 at a high current density of 1000 mA g^-1. Furthermore, even at a very high current density of 5000 mA g^-1, the charge-specific capacity remained as high as 721 mAh g^-1, corresponding to 60% of its initial capacity at a current density of 100 mA g^-1.