Structure and electrochemical properties of Mg2SnO4 nanoparticles synthesized by a facile co-precipitation method

• Nanosized Mg2SnO4 has been synthesized by a facile co-precipitation method.
• We find that Mg2SnO4 sample is very sensitive to the ageing time of the precursor.
• The single phase Mg2SnO4 nanoparticles with about 23 nm can be obtained by calcining the ageing 35 min percusor at 900 °C.
• The obtained powders show a better electrochemical performance.

Nanosized Mg2SnO4 has been synthesized by a facile co-precipitation method. The structure and morphology of the as-prepared samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It is found that Mg2SnO4 sample is very sensitive to the aging time of the precursor. The single phase Mg2SnO4 nanoparticles with ∼23 nm can be obtained at 900 °C using the aging 35 min percusor as source. The electrochemical properties of the powder obtained at 900 °C are investigated by galvanostatic discharge-charge tests and cyclic voltammograms (CVs). The initial specific discharge capacity reaches as high as 927.7 mAh g−1 at 0.2 mA cm−2 in 0.05–3.0 V, which indicates that Mg2SnO4 nanoparticles could be a promising candidate of anode material for Li-ion batteries.