Graphene-like 2D carbon wrapped porous carbon embedded SnO2/CoSn hybrid nanoparticles with enhanced lithium storage performance

•Graphene-like 2D carbon nanosheets were prepared via a facile approach.•SnO2/CoSn embedded in porous carbon was wrapped by the graphene-like 2D carbon nanosheets.•The composite architecture offered SnO2 improved kinetics and excellent structural stability.•The lithium storage properties of the SnO2 were significantly improved. Eliminating the issues caused by large volumetric expansion and low conductivity is a critical tactic for the performance improvement of SnO2 anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Herein, the issues mentioned above are effectively alleviated and hence the lithium storage performance of the SnO2 is significantly improved through construction of a characteristic nanocomposite. In this nanocomposite the porous carbon embedded SnO2/CoSn hybrid nanoparticles are wrapped in a graphene-like 2-dimensional (2D) carbon nanosheets assembled three-dimensional (3D) carbon matrix. This nanocomposite is referred to as SnO2/CoSn@3DC. The SnO2/CoSn@3DC is demonstrated to integrate the advantages of heterogeneous hybrid nanoparticles, porous carbon and graphene-like 2D carbon nanosheets, therefore showing enhanced electrochemical kinetics and cycling stability. As a result, it delivers 887.1 mAh g − 1 after 110 cycles at 200 mA g − 1 as well as 803.4 mAh g − 1 after 170 cycles at 1000 mA g − 1, therefore exhibiting good potential in application in lithium-ion batteries as advanced anodes. Furthermore, the strategy reported here for preparing SnO2/CoSn@3DC may be extended to prepare other 2D carbon/metallic oxide/alloy composites for advanced lithium-ion battery anodes with various precursors such as ZnSn(OH)6 and FeSn(OH)6 compounds. [Display omitted]