SnSe nanocrystals decorated on carbon nanotubes for high-performance lithium-ion battery anodes

Tin selenide has been considered as one of the most promising anode materials for lithium-ion battery owing to its high theoretical capacity. In this work, a facile colloidal synthetic method was successfully used to obtain nanocomposites comprising ~7 nm SnSe nanocrystals and carbon nanotubes (SnSe NC/CNT). When applied as anode materials in lithium-ion battery, the SnSe NC/CNT nanocomposites exhibited excellent electrochemical performance with a reversible capacity of 706.5 mAh g⁻¹ after 300 cycles at a constant current density of 200 mA g⁻¹. The SnSe NC/CNT nanocomposites also delivered the high reversible capacity of 532.0 mAh g⁻¹ at a high current density of 1.0 A g⁻¹. The SnSe nanocomposites are advantageous to the ion and electron transport. Interconnected by CNT after annealing at 200 °C, SnSe NC/CNT nanocomposites can accommodate the volume expansion even after 300 cycles. The complex conversion and alloying reaction are studied by X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption near edge structure.