Facile synthesis of SnO ₂ nanocrystals coated conducting polymer nanowires for enhanced lithium storage

SnO ₂ nanoparticles uniformly decorated polypyrrole (PPy) nanowires are synthesized by a facile two-step electrochemical reaction method: electropolymerization and electrodeposition. The nanostructured SnO ₂-PPy hybrids show porous reticular morphology and homogenous distributions. The reticular SnO ₂-PPy nanowires can increase the electrode/electrolyte interface and accommodate the volume variation of SnO ₂. When applied as anode materials for lithium ion batteries, the unique nanostructured hybrids deliver meaningfully improved Li ⁺ storage performance with the first reversible capacity of 690 mAh g ^-1. This facile synthesis procedure can also be simply grafted to other inorganic-organic hybrid composites.