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 m2·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). © 2014 American Chemical Society.
Original language | English |
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Journal | A C S Applied Materials and Interfaces |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 10 |
Pages (from-to) | 7236-7243 |
Number of pages | 8 |
ISSN | 1944-8244 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Cobalt oxide
- Cube
- Enhanced rate capability
- Lithium-ion batteries
- Mesoporous
- Micro-/nanostructured