Tin Oxide-Carbon-Coated Sepiolite Nanofibers with Enhanced Lithium-Ion Storage Property

Natural sepiolite (Sep) nanofibers were coated with carbon and nanoscale SnO₂ to prepare an emerging nanocomposite (SnO₂-C@Sep), which exhibited enhanced electrochemical performance. Sepiolite could act as a steady skeleton, carbon coating principally led sepiolite from an isolated to an electric state, and decoration of nanoscale SnO₂ was beneficial to the functionization of sepiolite. Cycling performances indicated that SnO₂-C@Sep showed higher discharge capacities than commercial SnO₂ after 50 cycles. The nanocomposite SnO₂-C@Sep possessed enhanced lithium storage properties with stable capacity retention and low cost, which could open up a new strategy to synthesize a variety of functional hybrid materials based on the cheap and abundant clay and commercialization of lithium-metal oxide batteries.