Flexible Tin-Based Carbon Nanofiber as Binder-Free Electrodes for Sodium-Ion Battery

Flexible batteries are promising in the fields of flexible electronic products, wearable devices and even implantable medical devices. Carbon nanofibers are considered to be the matrix of active material in flexible electronics. Herein, to attain better flexibility and higher energy density, electrospun carbon nanofibers embedded with Sn were used as flexible anode for sodium-ion battery. The Sn/C nanofibers were obtained from electrospinning process and afterwards pre-oxidation and carbonization procedure. SEM, TEM, XRD, TGA, carbon content, Raman and electrochemical tests were also undertaken to measure their morphology, structure and properties. The results indicate that the Sn/C nanofibers exhibit better morphology (continuous fiber shape) and electrochemical performance (431.2 mAh g⁻¹ of initial reversible capacity at current density of 100 mA g⁻¹) in the sodium-ion batteries with the anode at the mass ratio of 1:0.6 (PAN: SnCl₂·2H₂O) and carbonized temperature of 700 °C.