Supplementary information

Chestnut-like SnO2/C Nanocomposites with Enhanced

Lithium Ion Storage PropertiesLie Yang1, Tao Dai1, Yuecun Wang1, Degang Xie1, R. Lakshmi Narayan1, 2, Ju

Li1, 3,*, Xiaohui Ning1,*

1Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale (CAMP-Nano), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, P. R. China. 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.3Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.*Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: xiaohuining@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (X.H. Ning), liju@mit.edu (J. Li)

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Fig. S1 FESEM and TEM images of a-b) Sn nanoparticles, c-d) chestnut-like SnO2 nanoparticles and e-f) chestnut-like SnO2/C nanoparticles.

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Fig. S2 FESEM images of SnOx products obtained by oxidizing Sn in water (a) with glucose and (b) without glucose.

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Fig. S3 Characterization of charged phase during cycling. (a) SAED pattern of fully charged particles. (b) XRD result of the electrode plate at fully charged state.

The SAED exhibits diffraction spots of both Sn and SnO2, suggesting the phase is mixed SnO2 and Sn after fully charged. Besides, the XRD curve exhibits signals of both Sn and SnO2 as well, which further confirms the composition of mixed SnO2 and Sn. It should be noted that the Cu related peaks come from the copper foil that act as the current collector. The broad peak at about 20 degree comes from the Kapton film which is amorphous and used to separate the electrode materials from the air during XRD test. In conclusion, after being fully charged, the phase is a mixed SnO2 and Sn rather than pure SnO2 or Sn. It illustrates that Li2O is partially reversible and explains the higher capacity than the theoretical value.

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Table S1 comparison of synthesizing methods for SnO2 based hierarchical particles

 Materials Reactants  ConditionMorpholog

y References

 Hierarchical Hollow

SnO2

SnSO4+H2O hydrothermal

 

 a

 SnO2

Nanosheets

 SnCl2·2H2O+C2H5OH+H2O  hydrothermal 

 b

 SnO2

Hierarchical Structures

 SnCl2·2H2O+urea+NaOH+H2O  hydrothermal

 

c

 SnO2

nanosheet hollow spheres

 

SnCl2·2H2O+urea+HCl+H2O+PS+C2H4O

2S

 hydrothermal

 

 d

Chestnut-

like SnO2/C Sn+glucose hydrothermal our work

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Table S2: Comparison of lithium ion storage properties of SnO2 based hierarchical particles

MaterialsSpecific capacity

Capacity fading rate

Voltage window

Current density

References

Hierarchical Hollow SnO2

545 0.9% (50cycles) 0.05-1.2V 100mA/g a

SnO2 Nanosheets 559 2.3% (20cycles) 0.005-3.0V 78.2mA/g b

SnO2 Hierarchical Structures

516 0.4% (50cycles) 0.01-1.2V 400mA/g c

SnO2 nanosheet hollow spheres

519 0.6% (50cycles) 0.01-1.2V 160mA/g d

Chestnut-like SnO2/C

9420.1% (100cycles)

0.005-2.5V 80mA/gour work

549 0.005-1.2V 80mA/g

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References:a. X. M. Yin, C. C. Li, M. Zhang, Q. Y. Hao, S. Liu, L. B. Chen,T. H. Wang, J. Phys. Chem.

C 114 (2010) 8084-8088.b. C. Wang, Y. Zhou, M. Ge, X. Xu, Z. Zhang,J. Z. Jiang, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132 (2010)

46-47.c. H. B. Wu, J. S. Chen, X. W. Lou,H. H. Hng, J. Phys. Chem. C 115 (2011) 24605-24610.d. P. Wu, N. Du, H. Zhang, J. Yu, Y. Qi,D. Yang, Nanoscale 3 (2011) 746-750.

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