One-step synthesis of SnO2@rGO-carbon particle framework nanoarchitectures as anode materials for tunable lithium storage properties

A series of novel nanoarchitectures of SnO2@rGO-carbon inserted with carbon nanoparticles of BP2000 and KJ600 was successfully prepared by a facile coprecipitation method. TGA, XRD, SEM, TEM and Raman spectrom analysis are carried out and indicate that SnO2 nanoparticles and carbon intermediates are uniformly dispersed on graphene nanosheets at a molecular level, forming the framework nanoarchitectures of SnO2@rGO-carbon particles. SnO2@rGO-BP2000 delivers a discharge capacity of 1284.4 mAhg (1) and 76% retention of the reversible capacities after 60 cycles at an initial current density of 100 mAg (1). SnO2@rGO-BP2000 also showed the best rate performance among three anode materials at both high and low rate. The outstanding performance of the SnO2@rGO-BP2000 is attributed to well-defined morphology with suitable particle size, uniform distribution as well as enough room for the SnO2 volume expansion based on the graphene-carbon particles framework. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.