Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Power Sources journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jpowsour Sandwich architecture of SneSnSb alloy nanoparticles and N-doped reduced graphene oxide sheets as a high rate capability anode for lithium-ion batteries Sambedan Jena a,1 , Arijit Mitra b,1 , Arghya Patra b , Srijan Sengupta b , Karabi Das b , Subhasish B. Majumder c , Siddhartha Das b,* a School of Nano Science and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India b Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India c Materials Science Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721302, India HIGHLIGHTS • Synthesis of SneSnSbeN doped rGO composite is performed. • The structure of the composite is in the form of sandwich architecture. • Electrodeposited 3D microporous Nickel Foam is used as current collec- tors. • 40 wt% N-rGO composite shows the best rate capability as per the results. • Detailed study of the electrochemical performance of the composites is per- formed. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis Sandwiched architecture Alloy anode Lithium-ion batteries ABSTRACT In this article, we report an active-matrix type SneSnSb alloy, which is sandwiched between nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (N-rGO) sheets in the form of a nanocomposite, as a high rate capability anode for lithium-ion batteries. The alloy nanocomposite is synthesized via a cheap and industrially scalable route of microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis, and is coated onto electrodeposited 3D microporous nickel foam current collector. The additional mechanical buffering, along with effective electron conduction and lithium ion diffusion pathways provided by N-rGO nanosheets and nickel foam, result in a specific capacity of ∼300 mAhg -1 at a specific current of 4 A g -1 by preventing both pulverization and delamination of the active material. This combination of properties in N-rGO decorated SneSnSb nanocomposite anode (with 40 wt% N- rGO) on nickel foam results in a 2nd cycle discharge specific capacity of 705 mAhg -1 , with a stable reversible specific capacity of 500 mAhg -1 after 200 cycles @ 0.1 A g -1 . The nanocomposite anode also shows capacity retention of 400 mAhg -1 @ 0.8 A g -1 (1C rate) for 120 cycles. As compared to low N-rGO (10 wt%) decorated nanocomposite, the high N-rGO (40 wt%) nanocomposite shows improved performance with a nominal sacrifice of capacity which is at par, if not superior, to the existing commercial graphitic anodes. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2018.08.058 Received 17 January 2018; Received in revised form 30 July 2018; Accepted 19 August 2018 * Corresponding author. 1 These authors have contributed equally. E-mail address: sdas@metal.iitkgp.ernet.in (S. Das). Journal of Power Sources 401 (2018) 165–174 0378-7753/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T