Controlled thermal sintering of a metal–metal oxide–carbon ternary composite with a multi-scale hollow nanostructure for use as an anode material in Li-ion batteries

Abstract

We report a synthetic scheme for preparing a SnO₂–Sn–carbon triad inverse opal porous material using the controlled sintering of Sn precursor-infiltrated polystyrene (PS) nanobead films. Because the uniform PS nanobead film, which can be converted into carbon via a sintering step, uptakes the precursor solution, the carbon can be uniformly distributed throughout the Sn-based anode material. Moreover, the partial carbonization of the PS nanobeads under a controlled Ar/oxygen environment not only produces a composite material with an inverse opal-like porous nanostructure but also converts the Sn precursor/PS into a SnO₂–Sn–C triad electrode.