Formation of tin-carbon composites from carbonized biowaste with in-situ neutron study

Carbonized waste presents a promising route to produce energy materials in a low carbon with precursor material plant material. Hydrothermal carbon (HTC) can be further modified to produce battery anodes, water purification filters, supercapacitors, fuel cells and catalyst supports.In this work, We propose to combine the previous work about carbon to buffer the volume change of Sn. Our current project for Sn-carbon composite in two different methods: 1) HTC followed by heat treatment to high temperature, 2) direct heat treatment in a pressure vessel. Those two methods show large differences in electrochemical performance. To understand the structural differences the samples have when the two methods are applied – in particular, how the number of graphitic domains, their structure, and the tin structures present in the sample – we request in-situ SANS beamtime.