Fast facile synthesis of SnO2/Graphene composite assisted by microwave as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

•SnO2/graphene is fast obtained by microwave hydrothermal reaction within 30 min.•Ultrasmall SnO2 nano-particles well disperse with particle size of 3–8nm.•High specific capacity of 978.6mAhg−1 is reached at 200mAg−1 after 100 cycles.•At 1Ag−1, reversible capacities of 747.0mAhg−1 is remained after 200 cycles. SnO2 is promising as anode material for Lithium ion batteries(LIBs) due to its high specific capacity and low opening potential. However, its poor electronic conductivity as well as serious volume effect significantly restrict its application in LIBs. In this work, a facile hydrothermal method assisted with microwave is performed to realize the composite of SnO2 and graphene within only 30minutes without any chelating agents. It is highly time-efficient with relatively high SnO2 loading of 89.97wt.%. Ultrasmall nano-particles of SnO2 well disperse on the surface of the graphene with average particle size of 3–8nm and larger surface area of 417.45m2g−1. Simultaneously, high charge/discharge capacity of 969.4/978.6mAhg−1 is obtained after 100 cycles at 200mAg−1. Even increasing the current density to 1Ag−1, high reversible charge/discharge capacities of 740.0/747.0mAhg−1 are still remained after 200 cycles. In addition, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are performed to further study the composite material prepared by facile microwave hydrothermal method. It is considered to be a high efficient way to obtain SnO2/graphene composite with excellent electrochemical properties as anode material for applications.