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Double-Network Nanostructured Hydrogel-Derived Ultrafine Sn-Fe Alloy in Three-Dimensional Carbon Framework for
Hongxia Shi1, Zhiwei Fang2, Xiao Zhang2
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of New Power Batteries, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Biomedical Functional Materials, School of Chemistry and Materials Science , Nanjing Normal University , Nanjing 210023 , China.
Abstract:
Tin-based alloys (Sn-M, M = Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu) have been considered as promising alternatives for graphite anode in advanced Li-ion batteries, but their practical application is hindered by huge volume change-induced poor cycle life. We propose here a facile inorganic-organic double-network nanostructured hydrogel-enabled methodology for uniformly immobilizing ultrafine Sn-M alloys in hierarchical carbon frameworks. The double-network nanostructured gel, consisting of three-dimensional (3D) intertwined cyano-bridged Sn(IV)-Fe(II) inorganic gel and chitosan-glutaraldehyde organic polymer gel, can realize 3D space confinement in molecular scale and thus obtain ultrafine Sn-Fe alloy particles (average size ∼2.7 nm) uniformly embedded in hierarchical 1D to 3D carbon framework. These unique structural features enable the Sn-Fe@C framework electrodes to exhibit long cycle life (516 mA h g-1 after 500 cycles at 0.1 A g-1) and high rate capability (491 and 270 mA h g-1 at 1 and 10 A g-1, respectively). This work provides new insight into controlled synthesis of ultrafine alloys in hierarchical 3D carbon frameworks for improving energy storage properties.
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