Diverse-shaped tin dioxide nanoparticles within a plastic waste-derived three-dimensional porous carbon framework for super stable lithium-ion storage

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 815; p. 152900
• Main Authors: Min, Jiakang, Xu, Xiaodong, Koh, J. Justin, Gong, Jiang, Chen, Xuecheng, Azadmanjiri, Jalal, Zhang, Feifei, Liu, Siqi, He, Chaobin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.04.2022
• Subjects: Hollow carbon sphere; lithium-ion battery; Plastic waste; Porous carbon flake; Tin oxide; Hollow carbon sphere; Porous carbon flake; lithium-ion battery; Tin oxide; Plastic waste
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152900

Tin dioxides (SnO2) inserted into carbons to serve as anodes for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are known to improve their cycling stability. However, studies on diverse-shaped SnO2 nanoparticles within a porous carbon matrix for super stable lithium-ion storage are rare. Herein, a hollow carbon sphere/porous carbon flake (HCS/PCF) framework is fabricated through template carbonization of plastic waste. By changing the doping mechanism and tuning the loading content, nano SnO2 spheres and cubes as well as bulk SnO2 flakes and blocks are in-situ grown within the HCS/PCF. Then, the as-prepared hybrids with built-in various morphological SnO2 nanoparticles serve as anodes towards advanced lithium-ion batteries. Notably, HCS/PCF embedded with nano SnO2 spheres and cubes anodes possess superb long-term cycling stability (~0.048% and ~0.05% average capacitance decay per cycle at 1 A/g over 400 cycles) with high reversible specific capacities of 0.45 and 0.498 Ah/g after 1000 cycles at 5 A/g. The ultra-stabilized Li+ storage is attributed to the effective mitigation of nano SnO2 spheres/cubes volume expansion, originating from the compact SnO2 yolk-HCS/PCF shell construction. This study paves a general strategy for disposing of polymeric waste to produce SnO2 core-carbon shell anodes for super stable lithium-ion storage. [Display omitted] •Hollow carbon sphere/porous carbon flake (HCS/PCF) is fabricated from plastic waste.•HCS/PCF/SnO2 spheres and cubes possess super long-term stable lithium-ion storage.•Ultra stable Li+ storage is attributed to compact SnO2 yolk-HCS/PCF shell structure.•This study paves a strategy for disposing plastic waste to stabilized LIB anodes.