Carbon-enhanced electrodeposited SnO2/carbon nanofiber composites as anode for lithium-ion batteries

• SnO2-electrodeposited porous and nonporous CNFs anodes are introduced.
• Loading of electrodeposited SnO2 nanoparticles was increased by using porous CNFs.
• SnO2-electrodeposited nanofibers were coated with amorphous carbon by CVD method.
• CVD carbon coating led to high capacity retention and coulombic efficiency.

Tin oxides (SnO2) are promising anode material candidate for next-generation lithium-ion batteries due to their high capacity, low cost, high abundance, and low toxicity. However, the practical use of SnO2 anodes is currently limited by their large volume changes during cycling. Severe volume changes of SnO2 anodes lead to intense pulverization and loss of electrical contact between the active material and carbon conductor. Herein, we introduce binder-free SnO2-electrodeposited carbon nanofibers (CNF@SnO2) and SnO2-electrodeposited porous carbon nanofibers (PCNF@SnO2) composites that can maintain their structural stability during repeated charge–discharge cycling. Results indicated that the amount of the electrodeposited SnO2 nanoparticles and the capacity of the resultant composites were successfully enhanced by using a porous nanofiber structure. Both CNF@SnO2 and PCNF@SnO2 composites were also coated with amorphous carbon layers by chemical vapor deposition to further improve the structural stability. Electrochemical performance results demonstrated that the combination of porous nanofiber structure and CVD amorphous coating led to a novel carbon-coated PCNF@SnO2 composite anode with high capacity retention of 78% and large coulombic efficiency of 99.8% at the 100th cycle.