Abstract
Sn and Sn-based compounds have attracted great interest as a candidate for anode materials of Li-ion batteries. In the present work, in a Sn–Li battery system we have investigated effects of the volume change associated with the formation of Li–Sn compounds on the electrode potential from the viewpoint of the Gibbs free energy and associated elastic-strain energy. Our experimental results show that the experimental electrode potential is much lower than the value expected thermodynamically, when a Sn plate-shape electrode is lithiated. These experimental results can be consistently explained by considering the contribution of the elastic-strain energy to the chemical free energy of formation.
