Electrochemical Properties of Flexible Anode with SnO2 Nanopowder for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) have attracted substantial interest as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries because of the low cost. There have been many studies on the development of new anode materials that could react with sodium by conversion mechanism. SnO2 is a promising candidate due to its low cost and high theoretical capacity. However, SnO2 has the same problem as other anodes during the conversion reaction, i.e., the volume of the anode repeatedly expands and contracts by cycling. Herein, anode is composed of carbon nanofiber embedded with SnO2 nanopowder. The resultant electrode showed improvement of cyclability. The optimized SnO2 electrode showed high capacity of 1275 mAh g–1 at a current density of 50 mA g–1. The high conductivity of the optimized electrode resulted in superior electrochemical performance.