Designing Hierarchical Porous ZnO/ZnFe₂O₄ Hybrid Nanofibers with Robust Core/Shell Heterostructure as Competitive Anodes for Efficient Lithium Storage

Abstract

Hierarchical hybrid heteroarchitectures possess attractive structural/compositional merits for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a facile yet in situ growth strategy is proposed to scalably synthesize hierarchical porous ZnO/ZnFe2O4 hybrid nanofibers (NFs) with robust core/shell heterostructure toward LIBs. In such hybrids, 2D ZnFe2O4 nanosheets (NSs) are uniformly decorated on single‐crystalline ZnO core NFs, thereby affording more exposed active sites, a fast ion diffusion kinetic, and structural stability of electrodes during repeated cycling. As a result, benefiting from the unique hierarchical porous core/shell architecture and synergistic effects between the stable substrate of ZnO NFs and high‐capacity promoter of ZnFe2O4 NSs, the optimized ZnO/ZnFe2O4 hybrid as an anode for LIBs delivers a large reversible capacity of ≈688 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1, high rate capability (≈288 mAh g−1 at 2.0 A g−1), and remarkable cyclability (≈491 mAh g−1 even over 250 cycles at 0.5 A g−1) for efficient lithium storage. This work highlights the rational design of a hierarchical architecture with a stable substrate and high‐capacity phases for next‐generation energy storage applications.

Enhanced cycling stability and rate capability of a graphene-supported commercialized Vat Blue 4 anode for advanced Li-ion batteries

“…[11][12][13] Therefore, it is critical to developing low-cost, sustainable, high-performance electrode materials instead of conventional inorganic compounds for future LIBs. [14][15][16] Compared to conventional inorganic electrode materials, organic compounds not only present high capacity, abundant and eco-friendly resources, and facile synthesis, but also can easily control the electrochemical properties by molecular structure design. 9,[17][18][19] Moreover, carbon-supported structure is an effective approach to suppress its severe solubility through the strong π-π interaction derived from highly π-conjugated system and spatial confinement in-between the graphene sheets.…”

Lithium‐ion battery anode with high capacity retention derived from zinc vanadate and holey graphene

“…Transition metal oxides (TMOs) as LIB anode have shown higher capacity along with low pulverization issues but huge volumetric dilatations and capacity degradation have challenged their existence in commercial LIB anodes. [3][4][5][6] This has led to many new recipes of TMOs among which the vanadium oxides, vanadates and their mixedvalence oxides like Co 2 V 2 O 7 , FeVO 4 , InVO 4 and Zn 3 V 2 O 8 have displayed higher capacities as LIB anodes. Compared to other vanadium oxides, the vanadate's layered structure has larger d-spacing and is known to have high Li + -ion storage ability.…”

“…Most of these hitches need detailed mechanistic investigations for the proper treatment and selection of the materials for the real‐world solutions in advanced LIBs. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) as LIB anode have shown higher capacity along with low pulverization issues but huge volumetric dilatations and capacity degradation have challenged their existence in commercial LIB anodes 3‐6 …”

Architecture of ZnFe2O4@V2CTx MXene Hybrid Anodes via In Situ Chemical Co-precipitation for Optimized Lithium-Ion Battery

“…Being a transition-metal ferrite, ZnFe 2 O 4 (ZFO) has attracted widespread attention for its abundant raw materials, low-voltage platform, excellent stability, and secure nontoxicity. − The most important is that the theoretical specific capacity of ZFO can reach 1072 mAh g –1 , , and the value is much higher than that of the currently commercialized graphite anode (∼372 mAh g –1 ). , Nonetheless, ZFO suffers from restricted cycling and rate performances caused by its apparent volume expansion, slow ions diffusion, and depressed electrical conductivity, which critically restrains its application . To solve the problem, researchers have begun to pay attention to designing a rational composition/structure of ZFO-based electrode materials as the next-generation LIBs.…”

“…To solve the problem, researchers have begun to pay attention to designing a rational composition/structure of ZFO-based electrode materials as the next-generation LIBs. For example, Zhang et al obtained hierarchical porous ZnO/ZFO hybrid nanofibers with a good reversible capacity (∼688 mAh g –1 at 0.1 A g –1 ), large rate capability (∼288 mAh g –1 at 2.0 A g –1 ), and remarkable capability (∼491 mAh g –1 even over 250 cycles at 0.5 A g –1 ) . And Zhang et al prepared a series of ZFO-PEDOT composites with a network of macroporous channels.…”