Electrochemical performance of CuSn alloy anode materials for lithium-ion batteries fabricated by controlled electrodeposition.

Combining electrodeposition and heat treatment is an effective method to successfully fabricate CuSn alloy materials, in which the S2 alloy electrode is electrodeposited at 1.2 A dm current density with uniform and compact morphology. The characterization results show that monoclinic η'-CuSn and hexagonal η-CuSn phases fabricated at the appropriate current density exhibit excellent electrochemical performance. The optimal CuSn alloy anode material boasts not just a significantly high discharge specific capacity of 890.2 mA h g with an initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 73.96%, but also achieves an adequate discharge specific capacity of 287.1 after 50 cycles at 100 mA h g. Moreover, the electrodeposited CuSn alloy materials also possessed a lower transfer resistance of 42.45 Ω and an improved lithium-ion diffusion coefficient of 2.665 × 10 cm s at the current density of 1.2 A dm. Therefore, preparing the CuSn alloy thin-film electrode could be a cost-effective and straightforward method by electrodeposition from cyanide-free plating baths to develop anode components suitable for lithium-ion battery applications.