Intermetallic Ni3Sn4-based graphene@carbon hybrid composites for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

In this paper, nanosized Ni3Sn4 nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical reduction technique. A facile strategy is also developed to synthesize the yolk-shell Ni3Sn4 nanoparticles decorated between the layers of multilayer graphene to obtain high-capacity, long service life with comparable cost Li-ion batteries. Ni3Sn4 nanoparticles in the form of yolk-shell morphology were synthesized between 30 and 130 nm in size and homogeneously anchored on graphene layers as spacers preventing the layers merging after vacuum filtration. The characterization of the as-synthesized composite electrodes was performed by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. As an anode electrode, yolk-shell Ni3Sn4/graphene composite electrodes revealed a stable capacity of 324.5 mAhg(-1) after 250 cycles, indicating that the composites might have a promising future application in Li-ion batteries. The results have shown that unique yolk-shell Ni3Sn4/graphene hybrid composite structure shows extraordinary electrochemical performance with superior reversible capacity and improved cyclic performance, indicating that the stacking of the active electrode nanoparticles between the graphene layers is a good method for maximum specific capacity outputs.