Structural and microstructural characterization of tin(II) oxide useful as anode material in lithium rechargeable batteries obtained from a different synthesis route at room temperature

Tin (II) oxide has been proposed as potential anode material in lithium rechargeable batteries. Different methods to obtain such compound have been developed with relative difficulty due to the fact that Sn(II) is easily oxidized to Sn(IV). We have applied a different methodology to synthesize SnO-romarchite by modifying the solvent nature of the controlled precipitation route using acetic acid and not water. Although the formation of Sn(IV) oxide could not be completely avoided, X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the synthesis of metastable tin(II) oxide as major phase at room temperature. In depth analysis using Popa's model for Rietveld refinement allows to precise that the material corresponds to small and distorted crystallites, very anisotropic in size. SEM technique confirmed the microstructure is build of flower-like agglomerates of ~15 µm, in turn made of plate-like individual grains that remind the crystallite structure anisotropy