Electro-deposition preparation of self-standing Cu-Sn alloy anode electrode for lithium ion battery

Three kinds of Cu-Sn alloy anodes with different current collectors for lithium ion batteries had been directly prepared by cost-effective and easy to scale-up electro-deposition method. Both the self-standing electrode and the electrode with polypyrrole (PPy) current collector had effects on enhancing the cycle stability and increasing the gravimetric energy density. However, due to the poor conductivity of PPy and the low crystallinity structure of Cu-Sn alloy layer, the high rate performance of Cu-Sn alloy electrode with PPy current collector was unsatisfactory, while the self-standing electrode not only greatly increased the cycle stability and energy density of the whole electrode to a large extent, but also exhibited superior high-current cycle performance. Even cycled at a current density of 6 A g⁻¹ after 700 cycles, the self-standing electrode could still maintain a specific capacity of 332 mA h g⁻¹, which illustrated the potential application prospect of self-standing electrode with higher energy density and power density.