SnO and SnO·CoO nanocomposite as high capacity anode materials for lithium ion batteries

Abstract We prepared SnO nanoparticles (SnO–S) and SnO·CoO nanocomposites (SnO·CoO–B) as anodes for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) by chemical and ball-milling approaches, respectively. They are characterized by X-ray diffraction and TEM techniques. The Li- storage performance are evaluated by galvanostatic cycling and cyclic voltammetry. The SnO–S and SnO·CoO–B showed improved cycling performance due to their finite particle size (i.e. nano-size) and presence of secondary phase (CoO). Better cycling stability is noticed for SnO·CoO–B with the expense of their reversible capacity. Also, addition of carbon nanotubes (CNT) to SnO–S further improved the cycling performance of SnO–S. When cycled at 60 mA g−1, the first-cycle reversible capacities of 635, 590 and 460 (±10) mA h g−1 are noticed for SnO–S, SnO@CNT and SnO·CoO–B, respectively. The capacity fading observed are 3.7 and 1.8 mA h g−1 per cycle for SnO–S and SnO@CNT, respectively; whereas 1–1.2 mA h g−1 per cycle for SnO·CoO–B. All the samples show high coulombic efficiency, 96–98% in the range of 5–50 cycles.