title: Hexagonal-shaped tin glycolate particles: a preliminary study of their suitability as li-ion insertion electrodes.
abstract: Tin glycolate particles were prepared by a simple, one-step, polyol-mediated synthesis in air in which tin oxalate precursor was added to ethylene glycol and heated at reflux. Hexagonal-shaped, micron-sized tin glycolate particles were formed when the solution had cooled. A series of tin oxides was produced by calcination of the synthesized tin glycolate at 600-800 degrees C. It was revealed that the micron-sized, hexagonal-shaped tin glycolate now consisted of nanosized tin-based particles (80-120 nm), encapsulated within a tin glycolate shell. XRD, TGA, and FT-IR measurements were conducted to account for the three-dimensional growth of the tin glycolate particles. When applied as an anode material for Li-ion batteries, the synthesized tin glycolate particles showed good electrochemical reactivity in Li-ion insertion/deinsertion, retaining a specific capacity of 416 mAh g(-1) beyond 50 cycles. This performance was significantly better than those of all the other tin oxides nanoparticles (<160 mAh g(-1)) obtained after heat treatment in air. We strongly believe that the buffering of the volume expansion by the glycolate upon Li-Sn alloying is the main factor for the improved cycling of the electrode.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. see-how.ng@psi.ch
authors.forename: See-How
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Sau-Yen
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chew
authors.forename: Dayse I
authors.initials: DI
authors.lastname: Dos Santos
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jia-Zhao
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shi-Xue
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.forename: Hua-Kun
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Liu