Scalable solvo-plasma production of porous tin oxide nanowires. (2nd November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nguyen, Tu Quang; Atla, Veerendra; Vendra, Venkat Kalyan; Thapa, Arjun Kumar; Jasinski, Jacek Bogdan; Druffel, Thad Lawrence; Sunkara, Mahendra Kumar
• Is Part Of: Chemical engineering science. Volume 154(2016)
• Page Start: 20
• Page End: 26
• Publication Date: 2016-11-02
• Subjects: Tin oxide nanowires -- Porous nanowires -- Roll-to-roll -- Scalable -- Large quantities -- Li-ion batteries; Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; Génie chimique -- Périodiques; Chemical engineering; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 660
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2016.03.008
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-2509

Abstract

Abstract: This paper reports a fast, scalable method for synthesizing tin oxide nanowire powder using cheap starting material of commercial tin oxide particles and an atmospheric microwave plasma reactor. Specifically, the synthesis concept involves plasma oxidation of tin oxide powder combined with potassium hydroxide for few seconds to a minute which is orders of magnitude lower than that using hydrothermal or vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) techniques. Even at lab scale, large-scale production of tin oxide nanowire powder as high as 10 g per hour has been produced. Systematic studies reveal nucleation and growth of K2 SnO3 nanowires from molten alloy involving KOH and tin oxide. A simple annealing step is used to convert K2 SnO3 intermediate nanowires into pure tin oxide nanowires. The extremely short reaction time of 20 s is three orders of magnitude faster than that of traditional hydrothermal method. It was shown that our tin oxide nanowire powder shows a high reversible capacity of 848 mA h g −1 after 55 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g −1 . The scalable production technique presented here and the applicability of resulting tin oxide nanowire powders makes it as suitable for practical implementation into lithium-ion battery applications. Graphical abstract: Highlights: A fast (reaction time scale less than 1 min), scalable method for synthesizing tin oxide nanowire powder using atmospheric plasma. The mechanism for observed one-dimensional growth is explained through the observation of an intermediate phase involving potassium stannate. The conversion of potassium stannate nanowires through acid wash followed by simple annealing step resulted in porous tin oxide nanowires. The resulting porous tin oxide nanowire powder shows a high reversible capacity of 848 mA h g −1 after 55 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g −1 . A large-scale production of tin oxide nanowire powder as high as 10 g per hour has been produced and could be increased further up to 300 g per hour using a lab-scale roll-to-roll setup.