Acta Metallurgica Sinica (English Letters) ›› 2018, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (2): 164-170.DOI: 10.1007/s40195-017-0622-3

Special Issue: 2018年复合材料专辑

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Synthesis of Co3O4 Nanoparticles Wrapped Within Full Carbon Matrix as an Anode Material for Lithium Ion Batteries

Subhalaxmi Mohapatra1, Shantikumar V. Nair1, Alok Kumar Rai1()   

  1. 1.Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular MedicineAmrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita UniversityKochiIndia
  • Received:2017-07-06 Revised:2017-07-06 Online:2018-02-20 Published:2018-03-20
  • About author:

    About author:Lin Lv and Feng-Qing Wang have contributed equally to this work.

Abstract:

A facile polyol-assisted pyro-synthesis method was used to synthesize Co3O4 nanoparticles embedded into carbon matrix without using any conventional carbon source. The surface analysis by scanning electron microscopy showed that the Co3O4 nanoparticles (~20 ± 5 nm) are tightly enwrapped within the carbon matrix. CHN analysis determined the carbon content was only 0.11% in the final annealed sample. The Co3O4@carbon exhibited high capacities and excellent cycling performance as an anode at various current rates (such as 914.4 and 515.5 mAh g-1 at 0.25 and 1.0 C, respectively, after 50 cycles; 318.2 mAh g-1 at a high current rate of 5.0 C after 25 cycles). This superior electrochemical performance of the electrode can be attributed to the various aspects, such as, (1) the existence of carbon matrix, which acts as a flexible buffer to accommodate the volume changes during Li+ ion insertion/deinsertion and facilitates the fast Li+ and electron transfer and (2) the anchoring of Co3O4 nanoparticles within the carbon matrix prevents particles agglomeration.

Key words: Co3O4, Carbon matrix, Pyro-synthesis, Anode, Lithium ion battery