Zn-doped Tin monoxide nanobelt induced engineering a graphene and CNT supported Zn-doped Tin dioxide composite for Lithium-ion storage

A simplified coprecipitation strategy is explored for the synthesis of Zn-doped tin oxide samples, and the Zn-doped tin monoxide nanobelts are further used to successfully engineer hierarchical reduced graphene oxide and carbon nanotube supported Zn-doped tin dioxide composite. [Display omitted] In this work, a rapid coprecipitation reaction is developed to obtain nano-sized Zn-doped tin oxide samples (Zn-SnO-II or Zn-SnO2-IV) for the first time by simply mixing tin ion (Sn2+ or Sn4+) and zinc ion (Zn2+) containing salts in a mild aqueous condition. Characterization results illustrate the Zn-SnO-II sample is constituted by an overwhelming quantity of Zn-doped SnO nanobelts and a small quantity of Zn-doped SnO2 nanoparticles. The redox reaction between the Sn2+ ions from the Zn-SnO-II sample and the surface oxygen-containing functional groups from functionalized carbon nanotube (F-CNT) and graphene oxide (GO) leads to the formation of the final Zn-SnO2/CNT@RGO composites. As an anode active material for lithium-ion batteries, the Zn-SnO2/CNT@RGO product showed superior electrochemical performance than the controlled Zn-SnO2/CNT and Zn-SnO2/RGO samples, which had a high gravimetric capacity of 901.3 mAh·g−1 at a high charge and discharge current of 1000 mA·g−1 after 300 cycles and excellent rate capability. The reaction mechanism for the successful synthesis of the Zn-doped tin oxide samples has been proposed, and the insight into the outstanding lithium-ion storage performance for the Zn-SnO2/CNT@RGO composite has been revealed. The synthetic processes for both the Zn-doped tin oxides and derived carbon supported composites are straightforward and involve no harsh conditions nor complicated treatment, which have good potential for massive production and application in wider fields.