As a new type of green energy, lithium-ion battery (LIB) has been widely used in various electric portable devices because of its high-voltage, large specific capacity, long cycle life and environmental friendliness [1,2].However, today\'s anode materials of commercial LIBs cannot meet the further development requirements of smart devices and electric car due to the limitations of the electrode capacity (e.g.372 mAh g-1 for graphite).Therefore, the exploration on new types of electrode materials becomes more and more important [3,4].Recently, the usage of Sn or Ge metals based materials for the LIB electrodes has attracted great interest due to its high theoretical capacity (900 mAh g-1 for Sn and 1600 mAh g-1 for Ge) [5-7], which can be viewed in addition as the excellent electrode materials due to the also high ion mobility and low lithium insertion potential.