Double shelled hollow SnO2/polymer microsphere as a high-capacity anode material for superior reversible lithium ion storage

Abstract

Double shelled hollow tin dioxide/poly(ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) (SnO₂/P(EGDMA-co-MAA)) microspheres were prepared by selective removal of the silica inner core via etching with hydrofluoric acid from the corresponding SiO₂/SnO₂/P(EGDMA-co-MAA) tri-layer microspheres. These tri-layer microspheres were synthesized using a combination of the modified Stöber method for the silica inner core, a hydrothermal technique for the sandwiched SnO₂ layer and distillation precipitation polymerization for the coated P(EGDMA-co-MAA) shell-layer. The double shelled hollow microspheres were utilized as anode materials for lithium ion batteries, which had a significantly enhanced cycling performance compared to when neat SnO₂ hollow spheres were used.