Tin-Metal-Carbon Composite Anode Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries

Graphite has been used as the negative electrode in lithium ion batteries for more than a decade. But it can't meet the needs of power battery application due to the low specific capacity. To attain higher energy density batteries, tin, which can alloy reversibly with lithium, has been considered as a replacement for graphite. However, tin anodes always suffer from high volume changes during charge/discharge cycling, leading to premature degradation of the anode. Since carbonaceous materials exhibit high electrical conductivity, good mechanical compliance, and stable lithium storage capacities with a small volume expansion, people have paid more attention to them. In order to make full use of the advantages of both tin and carbon, different matrix phases are evaluated for tin-carbon (Sn-C) nanocomposites in this paper. Several carbonaceous materials including amorphous carbon, graphite (G), graphene (GP), carbon nanotubes (CNT), and carbon nanofibers (CNF) have been exploited as an inert and conductive matrix in Sn-based anode materials, thus providing various tin-carbon composite anode materials. After reviewing that, the focus turns to alloys of tin with metal (M) and carbon, forming ternary and multiple composite anode materials. Based on the progress that has already been made on the relationship between the properties and microstructures of Sn-carbon-based anodes, it is believed that manipulating the multi-phase and multi-scale structures could offer important means for further charge/discharge improving the capacity and cyclability of Sn anodes. Overall, the Sn-Co-C-based composite anode materials may open the door to application.