Two-dimensional SnO2/graphene heterostructures for highly reversible electrochemical lithium storage

The ever-growing market demands for lithium ion batteries have stimulated numerous research efforts aiming at the exploration of novel electrode materials with higher capacity and long-term cycling stability. Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials and their heterostructures are an intense area of study and promise great potential in electrochemical lithium storage owing to their unique properties that result from structural planar confinement. Here we report a microwave chemistry strategy to integrate ultrathin SnO2 nanosheets into graphene layer to construct surface-to-surface 2D heterostructured architectures, which can provide unique structural planar confinement for highly reversible electrochemical lithium storage. The as-synthesized 2D SnO2/graphene heterostructures can exhibit high reversible capacity of 688.5 mA h g(-1) over 500 cycles with excellent long-term cycling stability and good rate capability when used as anode materials for lithium ion batteries. The present work definitely reveals the advantages of 2D heterostructures featured with a surface-to-surface stack between two different nanosheets in energy storage and conversion devices.