Coalescence in Hybrid Materials – The Key to High Capacity Electrodes

The rising demand for flexible electronic devices requires the development of bendable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), in which paper-like electrodes exhibit a high electrochemical storage capacity coupled with excellent mechanical flexibility. Along this line, this work proposes a novel fabrication method for self-supporting paper-like anodes, which are exclusively made from active materials. Metastable SnClx(OH)yOz precursor particles and graphene oxide (GO) sheets are assembled in a facile and low-cost way, leading to paper-like hybrid materials. Subsequent annealing at 500 °C under argon atmosphere reduces the GO simultaneously with the transformation of the metastable precursor to tin dioxide (SnO2) via a direct oxygen transfer mechanism between the two components. This oxygen transfer is accompanied by the anchoring of the SnO2 particles onto the reduced GO (rGO) sheets, yielding in an excellent synergy between mechanical stability, electrical conductivity and electrochemical capacity of the hybrid ma...