Carbon nanowires@ultrathin SnO2 nanosheets@carbon composite and its lithium storage properties

•We prepared a new morphological nanostructure of composite: CNWs@ultrathin SnO2 NSs@C composite.•The coaxial nanocable-like structure made the composite to have sufficient physical buffer ability.•The composite exhibited good results in performance of capacity and cycling.

In this work, a new morphological nanostructure of the CNWs@ultrathin SnO2 NSs@C composite has been successfully fabricated, realizing the integration of two-dimensional ultrathin SnO2 NSs and one-dimensional CNWs. The nanosized ultrathin SnO2 NSs (thickness of ca. 1–3 nm) are uniformly distributed between one dimension CNWs core and C shell, as confirmed by XRD, SEM, TEM and HRTEM characterizations. When tested as potential anode materials for LIBs, the as-prepared coaxial nanocable-like CNWs@ultrathin SnO2 NSs@C composite exhibits outstanding reversible capacity for lithium storage (695 mAh g−1 after 40 cycles at 160 mA g−1, 651 and 618 mAh g−1 after 80 cycles at 400 and 800 mA g−1, respectively). This intriguing architecture, which integrates both electronic conductivity and buffering matrix design strategies, contributing to enhanced lithium storage performance.

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