Crystal structure controlled synthesis of tin oxide nanoparticles for enhanced energy storage activity under neutral electrolyte

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics 2022-06, Vol.33 (17), p.13668-13683
• Main Authors: Arun Kumar, S., Rudra, Siddheswar, Thamizharasan, G., Pradhan, Mukul, Rani, Barkha, Sahu, Niroj Kumar, Nayak, Arpan Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Capacitance; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Charge transfer; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystal structure; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Electrokinetics; Energy storage; Ethanol; Hydrothermal crystal growth; Materials Science; Nanoparticles; Optical and Electronic Materials; Raman spectroscopy; Supercapacitors; Synthesis; Tin dioxide; Tin oxides
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-022-08302-w

Development of efficient electrode materials that boost the energy storage activity is one of the recent challenges in supercapacitor application. Herein, we demonstrate a facile hydrothermal method to synthesize crystal structure-controlled tin oxide nanoparticles as an efficient electrode material. The mixed solvent (ethanol and H 2 O) and NaOH play key roles to tune the crystal structure from SnO 2 to SnO nanoparticles and are well characterized using X-ray diffraction and Raman analysis techniques. The as-synthesized tin oxide nanoparticles were further tested for supercapacitor application in a three-electrode system. The SnO nanoparticles exhibit higher specific capacitance (189 F/g at 1 A/g) compared to SnO 2 nanoparticles-based electrodes under neutral media. The higher activity of SnO nanoparticles is ascribed to its higher surface area, and lower charge transfer resistance. The electrokinetic mechanism for the overall charge storage of all samples has been investigated in detail. Moreover, the SnO nanoparticles are further used to fabricate symmetric supercapacitor devices (SnO//SnO SSC device) and asymmetric supercapacitor devices (SnO//AC ASC device). The SnO//AC ASC device has delivered a maximum energy density of 33.99 Wh/kg at a power density of 0.3 kW/kg and exhibits excellent durability for 5000 cycles with a negligible loss of specific capacitance (retention of specific capacitance 90%). The excellent capacity, high energy, and power density of SnO nanoparticles suggest that it could be a promising candidate for future energy storage devices.