Stabilizing Co₃O₄ nanorods/N-doped graphene as advanced anode for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Tricobalt tetroxide (Co₃O₄) is one of the promising anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity. However, the poor electrical conductivity and the rapid capacity decay hamper its practical application. In this work, we design and fabricate a hierarchical Co₃O₄ nanorods/N-doped graphene (Co₃O₄/NG) material by a facile hydrothermal method. The nitrogen-doped graphene layers could buffer the volume change of Co₃O₄ nanorods during the delithium/lithium process, increase the electrical conductivity, and profit the diffusion of ions. As an anode, the Co₃O₄/NG material reveals high specific capacities of 1873.8 mA·h·g⁻¹ after 120 cycles at 0.1 A·g⁻¹ as well as 1299.5 mA·h·g⁻¹ after 400 cycles at 0.5 A·g⁻¹. Such superior electrochemical performances indicate that this work may provide an effective method for the design and synthesis of other metal oxide/N-doped graphene electrode materials.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Co₃O₄ / graphene / lithium-ion battery / anode

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2019M662405 and 2019M650612), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019BF047 and ZR2020KE059), and the School City Integration in Zibo (2019ZBXC299).

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