One-Pot Facile Synthesis of Ant-Cave-Structured Metal Oxide–Carbon Microballs by Continuous Process for Use as Anode Materials in Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

This paper introduces a facile one-pot method for synthesizing a new structured material, named "ant-cave microball", by continuous ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. The ant-cave-structured microballs are prepared from a colloidal spray solution with polystyrene nanobeads and sucrose. Networking between the nanovoids formed by decomposition of the polystyrene nanobeads results in the formation of nanochannels. The electrochemical properties of these ant-cave-structured MoO3-C microballs, prepared as the first target material for lithium ion batteries, are investigated. The nanochannels are uniformly distributed inside the microballs with MoO3 and carbon components uniformly distributed within the microballs. Further, the microballs have initial discharge and charge capacities of 1212 and 841 mA h g(-1), respectively, at a current density of 2 A g(-1), and the initial discharge and charge capacities based on the weight of MoO3 (disregarding carbon component) are as high as 1814 and 1259 mA h g(-1). The microballs deliver a high discharge capacity of 733 mA h g(-1) even after 300 cycles. This is although microsized MoO3 powders with a filled structure have discharge capacities of 1256 and 345 mA h g(-1) for the first and 300th cycles, respectively.

Superior electrochemical properties of spherical-like Co2(OH)3Cl-reduced graphene oxide composite powders with ultrafine nanocrystals

“…6c shows the Nyquist impedance plots for the four samples obtained after the 100th cycle in a fully charged state. The medium-frequency semicircle is assigned to the charge-transfer resistance (R ct ), whereas the line inclined at %45°to the real axis corresponds to lithium diffusion within the electrodes [52][53][54]. The Co 2 (OH) 3 Cl/RGO powder electrode had a smaller charge transfer resistance than the others.…”

One-pot synthesis of core–shell-structured tin oxide–carbon composite powders by spray pyrolysis for use as anode materials in Li-ion batteries

“…However, LIB applications generally require composite powders with spherical shape, dense structure, and fine particle size to achieve an electrode with high tab density [20][21][22][23][24].…”

“…Spray pyrolysis has advantages in the one-step preparation of metal oxide-carbon composite powders with spherical shape and dense structure [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Various carbon source materials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, sucrose, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and citric acid, were used in the preparation of metal oxide-carbon composite powders by spray pyrolysis for applications in LIBs [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…Various carbon source materials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, sucrose, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and citric acid, were used in the preparation of metal oxide-carbon composite powders by spray pyrolysis for applications in LIBs [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Recently, metal oxide-carbon composite powders with a distinct structure and superior electrochemical properties were developed by spray pyrolysis.…”

“…Guo et al [22] and Xu et al [23] prepared Sn-carbon composite powders, in which Sn nanocrystals were uniformly distributed within a carbon matrix. Kang et al prepared ant-cave-structured MoO 3 -carbon composite and crumpled graphene-molybdenum oxide composite powders by one-pot spray pyrolysis showing superior lithium ion storage properties [24,25].…”