Studies of CoSn grains in the carbon matrix structure of nanostructured tin–cobalt–carbon

Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to qualitatively analyze the structure of Sn30Co30C40 alloys produced by vertical axis mechanical attriting to those produced by magnetron sputter deposition. From SANS and TEM, CoSn grains embedded in a carbon matrix structure were observed for all samples. The size of CoSn grains in the attrited samples was approximately 10 ± 3 nm by both TEM and SANS, while that of the sputtered samples was about 7 times smaller.

► Sn–Co–C alloys as negative electrode for Li-ion batteries.
► Sn–Co–C alloys prepared by mechanical alloying and by sputtering.
► CoSn grains embedded in carbon matrix structure was observed from SANS and TEM.
► SANS quickly characterized Sn–Co–C alloys equivalently to TEM.