title: Recycled Poly(vinyl alcohol) Sponge for Carbon Encapsulation of Size-Tunable Tin Dioxide Nanocrystalline Composites.
abstract: The recycling of industrial materials could reduce their environmental impact and waste haulage fees and result in sustainable manufacturing. In this work, commercial poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) sponges are recycled into a macroporous carbon matrix to encapsulate size-tunable SnO2 nanocrystals as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) through a scalable, flash-combustion method. The hydroxyl groups present copiously in the recycled PVA sponges guarantee a uniform chemical coupling with a tin(IV) citrate complex through intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Then, a scalable, ultrafast combustion process (30 s) carbonizes the PVA sponge into a 3D carbon matrix. This PVA-sponge-derived carbon could not only buffer the volume fluctuations upon the Li-Sn alloying and dealloying processes but also afford a mixed conductive network, that is, a continuous carbon framework for electrical transport and macropores for facile electrolyte percolation. The best-performing electrode based on this composite delivers a rate performance up to 9.72 C (4 A g(-1) ) and long-term cyclability (500 cycles) for Li(+) ion storage. Moreover, cyclic voltammograms demonstrate the coexistence of alloying and dealloying processes and non-diffusion-controlled pseudocapacitive behavior, which collectively contribute to the high-rate Li(+) ion storage.
authors.affiliation: Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC), Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538, SE-75121, Uppsala (Sweden). ma.yue@kemi.uu.se.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Arrhenius Laboratory, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm (Sweden).
authors.forename: Cheuk-Wai
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.affiliation: Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC), Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538, SE-75121, Uppsala (Sweden).
authors.forename: Torbjörn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gustafsson
authors.affiliation: Ångström Advanced Battery Centre (ÅABC), Department of Chemistry-Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538, SE-75121, Uppsala (Sweden).
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Edström
mesh_terms: D002214:Capsules; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D008094:Lithium / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D017971:Tin Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002214:Capsules; D017971:Tin Compounds; D002244:Carbon; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride; D008094:Lithium; C045358:stannic oxide
keywords: carbon; energy storage; flash combustion; lithium; polymers