Tin-graphene tubes as anodes for lithium-ion batteries with high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities

Runwei Mo; Xinyi Tan; Fan Li; Ran Tao; Jinhui Xu; Dejia Kong; Zhiyong Wang; Bin Xu; Xiang Wang; Chongmin Wang; Jinlai Li; Yiting Peng; Yunfeng Lu

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14859-z

Tin-graphene tubes as anodes for lithium-ion batteries with high volumetric and gravimetric energy densities

Nat Commun. 2020 Mar 13;11(1):1374. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14859-z.

Authors

Runwei Mo¹, Xinyi Tan¹, Fan Li¹, Ran Tao¹, Jinhui Xu¹, Dejia Kong¹, Zhiyong Wang¹, Bin Xu², Xiang Wang³, Chongmin Wang³, Jinlai Li⁴, Yiting Peng⁵, Yunfeng Lu⁶

Affiliations

¹ Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
² State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, Jilin University, 130012, Changchun, China.
³ Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352, USA.
⁴ ENN Group, Langfang, 065001, Hebei, China.
⁵ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Materials Protection and Advanced Materials in Electric Power, Shanghai University of Electric Power, 200090, Shanghai, China. pyt_1108@shiep.edu.cn.
⁶ Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. luucla@ucla.edu.

Abstract

Limited by the size of microelectronics, as well as the space of electrical vehicles, there are tremendous demands for lithium-ion batteries with high volumetric energy densities. Current lithium-ion batteries, however, adopt graphite-based anodes with low tap density and gravimetric capacity, resulting in poor volumetric performance metric. Here, by encapsulating nanoparticles of metallic tin in mechanically robust graphene tubes, we show tin anodes with high volumetric and gravimetric capacities, high rate performance, and long cycling life. Pairing with a commercial cathode material LiNi_0.6Mn_0.2Co_0.2O₂, full cells exhibit a gravimetric and volumetric energy density of 590 W h Kg^-1 and 1,252 W h L^-1, respectively, the latter of which doubles that of the cell based on graphite anodes. This work provides an effective route towards lithium-ion batteries with high energy density for a broad range of applications.