Synthesis of Highly Monodispersed SnO2/Carbon Nanocomposites for Li-Ion Battery Anode

A simple and easily scalable process to form a SnO2/carbon composite was achieved using ethanol, SnCl4 · 5H2O, and iodine. In the process, two reactions occur simultaneously: alcoholysis of Sn4+ and carbonization of ethanol by iodine. Ethanol is important to the synthesis of the SnO2/carbon composite, as it acts as both a solvent and carbon precursor. As the amount of NaCl decreased from 0.0005 to 0.0003 mol, the morphology shifted from flakes to self-assembled nanospheres with diameters of 100–150 nm. The correlation between the structural and electrochemical performance was processed. However, for the SnO2/carbon composites, the capacity decreased to 350.2 mAh g−1 within 50 cycles.