Flexible SnTe/carbon nanofiber membrane as a free-standing anode for high-performance lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries.

Flexible electrode plays a key role in flexible energy storage devices. The SnTe/C nanofibers membrane (SnTe/CNFM) with excellent mechanical flexibility has been successfully synthesized for the first time through electrospinning, and it demonstrates outstanding electrochemical performance as free-standing anode for lithium/sodium-ion batteries. The SnTe/CNFM electrode delivers a discharge capacity of 526.7 mAh g ^-1 at 1000 mA g ^-1 after 1000 cycles in lithium-ion half-cells and a discharge capacity of 236.5 mAh g ^-1 at 500 mA g ^-1 after 80 cycles in lithium-ion full-cells with a LiFePO ₄ cathode. Not only that, it shows a discharge capacity of 182.7 mAh g ^-1 at 200 mA g ^-1 after 200 cycles in sodium-ion half-cells and a high discharge capacity of 207.0 mAh g ^-1 at 500 mA g ^-1 after 50 cycles in sodium-ion full-cells with a Na _0.44 MnO ₂ cathode. Moreover, the prepared SnTe/CNFM exhibits good mechanical flexibility. The SnTe/CNFM can still return to its original state without any breakage after bending, curling, folding and kneading. These results indicate that SnTe/CNFM is expected to become one of the promising free-standing anodes for lithium/sodium-ion batteries.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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