Direct evidence of a conversion mechanism in a NiSnO3 anode for lithium ion battery application

Recently, ternary NiSnO3 was first reported as an anode for Li-ion batteries, presenting superior electrochemical performance to that of the NiO/SnO2 mixture. This was proposed to be due to the ‘self-matrix’ function of the discharge products that enables buffering the volume change and preventing the aggregation upon cycling. In this article, direct evidence of the ‘self-matrix’ mechanism of NiSnO3 has been observed via ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED).