Excellent cycling stability with high SnO2 loading on a three-dimensional graphene network for lithium ion batteries

Carbon materials, including pyrolytic carbon and nanocarbon, especially graphene, have been reported to be introduced in the SnO2-based anodes to decrease the capacity decay during cycling, but the capacity fading was not effectively suppressed. Herein, we report a three-dimensional cross-linked graphene material as the template to load electrochemically active material SnO2. A 3D composite of graphene and SnO2 was obtained with a relatively higher SnO2 loading of 89.51 wt%. The material shows excellent cycling stability with high reversible specific capacity (97% capacity retention, ca. 1096 mA h g−1 after 150 cycles at 1 A g−1 with 95% capacity retention, and ca. 1073 mA h g−1 after 500 cycles at 1 A g−1). Furthermore, its specific capacity remains at around 610 mA h g−1 at a high current density of 5 A g−1 (fully charged in ∼15 min).