Facile preparation of high-capacity carbon-coated SiO2 nanotubes for lithium-ion battery

With the merit of abundant resources, SiO 2 is emerging as a high-capacity and cost-effective anode for lithium-ion battery (LIB). Nevertheless, the inherently low conductivity and severe volume change of silica result in inferior rate capability and poor cycling life, which impede its practical applications. To overcome these shortcomings, designing novel nanostructures and coating with highly conductive carbon are two commonly used strategies to realize high-performance SiO 2 anodes. Herein, glucose-derived carbon coated SiO 2 nanotubes (SNTs@C) were designed and fabricated through a facile hydrothermal reaction and pyrolysis. Benefiting from the one-dimensional tubular structure and uniform carbon coating, SNTs@C can provide excellent transfer paths for electrons and ions, expose more active sites and accommodate the large volume variation. Therefore, the optimized SNTs@C could deliver a high specific capacity of 615 mAh g −1 , excellent rate capability of 220 mAh g −1 at 3 A g −1 , and superior cycling stability with a capacity of 400 mAh g −1 after 600 cycles. Our work offers a facile but feasible method to fabricate SiO 2 -based anode for LIB.