Carbon-Encapsulated Sn@N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes as Anode Materials for Application in SIBs

Carbon-encapsulated Sn@N-doped carbon tubes with submicron diameters were obtained via the simple reduction of C@SnO₂@N-doped carbon composites that were fabricated by a hydrothermal approach. Sn nanoparticles encapsulated in carbon layers were distributed uniformly on the surfaces of the N-doped carbon nanotubes. The electrochemical performances of the composites were systematically investigated as anode materials in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The composite electrode could attain a good reversible capacity of 398.4 mAh g^-1 when discharging at 100 mA g^-1, with capacity retention of 67.3% and very high Coulombic efficiency of 99.7% over 150 cycles. This good cycling performance, when compared to only 17.5 mAh g^-1 delivered by bare Sn particles prepared via the same method without the presence of N-doped carbon, could be mainly ascribed to the uniform distribution of the precursor SnO₂ on the substrate of N-doped carbon tubes with three-dimensional structure, which provides more reaction sites to reduce the diffusion distance of Na⁺, further facilitating Na⁺-ion diffusion and relieves the huge volume expansion during charging/discharging. These outcomes imply that such a Sn/C composite would provide more options as an anode candidate for SIBs.

Sodium-ion nanomachining to shape microcrystals into nanostructures and tune their properties

A novel top-down electrochemical sodium-ion nanomachining approach is demonstrated to carve simple rhombohedral microparticles into high-order flower-like nanostructures to tune their magnetic properties.