Electrochemical performances of NiO/Ni₂N nanocomposite thin film as anode material for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

Despite the high specific capacities, the practical application of transition metal oxides as the lithium ion battery (LIB) anode is hindered by their low cycling stability, severe polarization, low initial coulombic efficiency, etc. Here, we report the synthesis of the NiO/Ni₂N nanocomposite thin film by reactive magnetron sputtering with a Ni metal target in an atmosphere of 1 vol.% O₂ and 99 vol.% N₂. The existence of homogeneously dispersed nano Ni₂N phase not only improves charge transfer kinetics, but also contributes to the one-off formation of a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). In comparison with the NiO electrode, the NiO/Ni₂N electrode exhibits significantly enhanced cycling stability with retention rate of 98.8% (85.6% for the NiO electrode) after 50 cycles, initial coulombic efficiency of 76.6% (65.0% for the NiO electrode) and rate capability with 515.3 mA·h·g⁻¹ (340.1 mA·h·g⁻¹ for the NiO electrode) at 1.6 A·g⁻¹.

Keywords

NiO and Ni₂N / nanocomposite / reactive magnetron sputtering / lithium ion battery / electrode / electrochemical performance

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51767021) and the Jiangxi Yunjia High Tech Co., Ltd. (Grant No. 738010128).

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