Carbon-coated mesoporous SnO ₂ nanospheres as anode material for lithium ion batteries

In this paper mesoporous SnO ₂ nanospheres with an average diameter of about 83 nm, composed of many tiny primary particles (∼10 nm) and holes, are synthesized on a large scale by a simple hydrothermal route. The as-prepared mesoporous SnO ₂ nanospheres were uniformly coated with carbon by a further hydrothermal treatment in glucose aqueous solution. As anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, the core-shell SnO ₂/C nanocomposites exhibit a markedly improved cycling performance.