Preparation of nanowire arrays of amorphous carbon nanotube-coated single crystal SnO2

The development of an easy fabrication method for highly ordered tetragonal single-crystal SnO2 nanowire arrays using anodic alumina membrane (AAM) as a template through a sol-gel route employing citric acid as a chelating complex was reported. The image of a single SnO2 nanowire and the corresponding selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern indicates the typical characteristics of a perfect single-crystal structure where all the diffraction spots can be indexed to the zone axis of SnO2. The results show that citric acid partially coordinates with the hydrozyl groups on the walls of AAM pores forming Sn-citric acid-AAM bonds. The SnO2 nanowire array exhibits a reversible capacity of 418 mA h/g based on the weight of SnO2 in the first cycle.