Recycled Poly(vinyl alcohol) Sponge for Carbon Encapsulation of Size-Tunable Tin Dioxide Nanocrystalline Composites

• The recycling of industrial materials could reduce their environmental impact and waste haulage fees and result in sustainable manufacturing. In this work, commercial poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) sponges are recycled into a macroporous carbon matrix to encapsulate size-tunable SnO2 nanocrystals as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) through a scalable, flash-combustion method. The hydroxyl groups present copiously in the recycled PVA sponges guarantee a uniform chemical coupling with a tin(IV) citrate complex through intermolecular hydrogen bonds. Then, a scalable, ultrafast combustion process (30s) carbonizes the PVA sponge into a 3D carbon matrix. This PVA-sponge-derived carbon could not only buffer the volume fluctuations upon the Li-Sn alloying and dealloying processes but also afford a mixed conductive network, that is, a continuous carbon framework for electrical transport and macropores for facile electrolyte percolation. The best-performing electrode based on this composite delivers a rate performance up to 9.72C (4Ag(-1)) and long-term cyclability (500cycles) for Li+ ion storage. Moreover, cyclic voltammograms demonstrate the coexistence of alloying and dealloying processes and non-diffusion-controlled pseudocapacitive behavior, which collectively contribute to the high-rate Li+ ion storage.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

carbon

energy storage

flash combustion

lithium

polymers

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