Micro-/Nanostructured Co₃O₄ Anode with Enhanced Rate Capability for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Through a facile hydrothermal method with a special surfactant triethanolamine (TEA) followed by thermal treatment, monodispersed micro-/nanostructured Co3O4 powders with unique morphology (cube) have been synthesized successfully as anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). The regular Co3O4 microcubes (∼2.37 μm in the average side length) consist of many irregular nanoparticles (20-200 nm in diameter, 30-40 nm in thickness) bonded to each other, which greatly inherit the morphology and size of the precursor CoCO3. The specific surface area of Co3O4 powders is about 5.10 m(2)·g(-1) by the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method, and the average pore size is about 3.08 nm by the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) method. In addition, the precursor is verified as a single-crystal, while the mesoporous cubic Co3O4 is a polycrystalline characteristic assembled by numerous single-crystal nanoparticles. More remarkable, the high performance of the micro-/nanostructured cubic Co3O4 powders has been obtained by the electrochemical measurements including high initial discharge capacities (1298 mAhg(-1) at 0.1 C and 1041 mAhg(-1) at 1 C), impressive rate capability, and excellent capacity retention (99.3%, 97.5%, 99.2%, and 89.9% of the first charge capacities after 60 cycles at 0.1 C, 0.2 C, 0.5 C, and 1 C, respectively).

Ethanol-assisted solvothermal synthesis of porous nanostructured cobalt oxides (CoO/Co3O4) for high-performance supercapacitors

“…It is found that the fitted R s are almost the same (merely 0.16 X) for both impedance spectra, demonstrating the excellent electrical conductivity of the CoO/Co 3 O 4 electrode. After 5000 cycles, the electrode shows a larger charge-transfer resistance (4.7 X) due to the decomposition of the electrolyte and decrease of electrical conductivity continually [41]. In addition, the CoO/Co 3 O 4 electrode has a small diffusion resistance even after 5000 cycles, which can well explain the increase of the capacitance as described above.…”

A novel nano-Sn particle/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/poly(vinyl alcohol) core–shell hierarchical composite as high-performance anode material for lithium ion batteries

“…Therefore, novel anode materials with high energy and power densities, good cycling stability and rapid-rate capability are urgently required [5][6][7]. Anode materials with high theoretical capacities, such as Si [8], Ge [9], Al [10], Sn [11], Sb [12] and so on, are considered as promising alternatives to graphite anode for LIBs.…”

Urea-assisted solvothermal synthesis of monodisperse multiporous hierarchical micro/nanostructured ZnCo2O4 microspheres and their lithium storage properties

“…As shown in Table 2, with the increase of the cycle number, the R ct values grow up. This may be attributed to the decomposition of the electrolyte and decrease of the electrical conductivity continually [38]. As shown in Fig.…”

“…The semicircle at high-middle frequency is attributed to the charge-transfer resistance (R ct ) on electrode-electrolyte interface. The linear region can be assigned to the semi-infinite diffusion of Li + in the ZnCo 2 O 4 electrode[38][39][40]. The R ct values are…”