Anodic Tin Oxide Thin Films with Nano-Channeled Structure for Lithium Battery Anode

One-dimensional (1-D) nano-channeled structure has attracted attention as electrode design for the high performance electrochemical devices. This is mainly because its 1-D nano porous structure would allow for the fast ionic transport through it and rapid interfacial reactions. One of the conventional preparation methods of 1-D nano-channeled structure is anodic oxidation. Since the first introduction of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), different anodic metal oxides with 1-D structure have been reported for the past few decades.

Among the various 1-D metallic oxides reported in the literature, tin oxide might be utilized for various applications, such as catalysis, gas sensing, and electrochemical energy storage. In particular, when the nano-channeled tin oxide is used as the anode of the lithium battery, both of the lithia(Li₂O) network and nano-channeled structure accommodate the volume change of the tin-lithium phase during the charging/discharging cycles. Although there are some attempts to use the anodic tin oxide thin film as the electrode material for lithium battery, the active material on the substrate was not pure tin oxide but tin - tin oxide bilayer. Since the tin layer underneath anodic tin oxide undergoes a significant reaction-induced volume change, 1-D structure of bilayer collapses during the cycling,

In this work, pure anodic tin oxide with well-defined 1-D structure was prepared for the use as the anode for rechargeable lithium battery. Anodic tin oxides with different pore sizes and wall thicknesses were fabricated under various anodizing conditions and their electrochemical properties were characterized by cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge experiment.

In this presentation, cycling stability and rate capability of anodic tin oxides with different porous structures will be presented. Moreover, the feasibility of creating 1-D tin-based anodic oxide composite will be discussed for the further improvement of cycling stability.