Preparation of porous SnO2 helical nanotubes and SnO2 sheets

•Synthesized porous SnO2 helical nanotubes with diameters of 100–120 nm.•Synthesized porous SnO2 sheets template by graphite sheets.•The tubular and sheet SnO2 have small initial irreversible capacity loss of 3.2 and 2.2%.•The tubular structure shows better discharge capacity than the sheet structure.

We report a surfactant-free chemical solution route for synthesizing one-dimensional porous SnO2 helical nanotubes templated by helical carbon nanotubes and two-dimensional SnO2 sheets templated by graphite sheets. Transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, cyclic voltammetry, and galvanostatic discharge–charge analysis are used to characterize the SnO2 samples. The unique nanostructure and morphology make them promising anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Both the SnO2 with the tubular structure and the sheet structure shows small initial irreversible capacity loss of 3.2% and 2.2%, respectively. The SnO2 helical nanotubes show a specific discharge capacity of above 800 mAh g−1 after 10 charge and discharge cycles, exceeding the theoretical capacity of 781 mAh g−1 for SnO2. The nanotubes remain a specific discharge capacity of 439 mAh g−1 after 30 cycles, which is better than that of SnO2 sheets (323 mAh g−1).