Enhanced Cycling Properties of Carbon-Coated SnO2–Co3O4 Composite Nanowires for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Carbon-coated SnO2-Co3O4 composite nanowires (NWs) are synthesized to improve the cycling properties of lithium-ion batteries, using electrospinning followed by carbonization using a dopamine precursor. These carbon-coated composite NWs show excellent capacity retention (similar to 542 mAh/g; 50 cycles) compared to bare SnO2 NWs (similar to 101 mAh/g; 50 cycles) and SnO2-Co3O4 composite NWs (similar to 323 mAh/g; 50 cycles). The performance improvement is due to the combined effects of the composite structure of SnO2 and Co3O4 producing the enhanced capacity retention in the NW core region and the carbon coating in the shell region hindering large volume expansion-contraction of the electrode.