Electrochemical Characteristics of Tin Oxide- Graphite as Anode Material for Lithium-ion Cells

摘要

Tin oxide anode materials used in lithium-ion cells experience large volume changes during charging and discharging which cause substantial losses in capacity. In this work, the tin oxide-graphite composite is proposed as an alternative anode material to overcome this problem. The composite was synthesised from a solution of tin chloride dihydrate and graphite powders with citric acid as the chelating agent. In this sol-gel method, a solid phase is formed through a chemical reaction in a liquid phase at moderate temperature. The technique offers several advantages compared to the solid state synthesis technique such as the ability to maintain the homogeneous mixture of precursors during synthesis and to produce small particles. The electrochemical behaviour of the anode material was investigated by means of galvanostatic charge discharge technique. An initial reversible capacity of 748mAh/g is obtained and nearly 600mAh/g was retained upon the reaching the fifth cycle. This study shows that the presence of graphite is able to minimise the agglomeration of tin particles that causes large volume changes during cycling, thereby improving cyclability of the anode material.