Cotton-templated fabrication of hierarchical SnO₂ mesoporous microtubes as the anode material of lithium ion battery

SnO₂ mesoporous microtube materials were fabricated by a sonochemical method from biological template of cotton, which was used as the anode material of lithium ion battery. The cotton fibers were first given ultrasound treatment in SnCl₂ solution. Then the microtube structure was obtained after calcinations at different temperatures of 500, 650 and 800 C. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed the morphology of the SnO₂ mesoporous microtube which was composed of SnO₂ nanoparticles. The effect of calcinations temperature on the electrochemical performance of SnO₂ microtubes was studied. The results showed that the cycle performance of the sample under 500 C was relatively better than those of the samples under 650 and 800 C, exhibiting an initial specific capacity of 709 mA h g^-1 which was calculated based on the overall electrode loading and retaining 393.9 mA h g^-1 up to 20 cycles.