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Nitrogen-doped zinc/cobalt mixed oxide micro-/nanospheres for high-rate lithium-ion battery anode

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Abstract

Metal oxides are promising candidates as the anodes of next-generation lithium ion batteries. However, the low electronic conductivities hinder their practical applications. Herein, through a facile calcination process using ammonium bicarbonate (NH4HCO3) as the N source, the nitrogen heteroelement was introduced into the ZnO/CoO micro-/nanospheres, which greatly improves the conductivity of the composites. As the lithium-ion battery anode, the N-doped ZnO/CoO micro-/nanosphere demonstrates much enhanced electrochemical performance. It displays a high initial capacity of 911.8 mA h/g at a current density of 0.2 A/g and long-term cycling stability, with a reversible capacity of 977.8 mA h/g remained after 500 cycles at a current density of 1 A/g. Furthermore, the N-doped ZnO/CoO composite presents an outstanding rate performance, with 605 mA h/g remained even at 5 A/g. The excellent electrochemical properties make N-doped ZnO/CoO micro-/nanospheres a promising candidate as high-performance anodes for next-generation rechargeable LIBs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51502147), Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (2015BS0510), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017M611205), Fund of Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education (No. 2016AML08), Inner Mongolia scientific and technological achievements transformation project (CGZH2018132), and Inner Mongolia Innovation project for postgraduates (Nos. B20171012804Z and S20171012807).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pipeline Design Department, Zhuhai Branch of China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Co., Ltd., Zhuhai, 519015, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaotao Deng

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, Hohhot, 010051, China

    Sirui Li, Jiaqi Wang, Ding Nan, Junhui Dong & Jun Liu

  3. Inner Mongolia Key Laboratory of Graphite and Graphene for Energy Storage and Coating, Hohhot, 010051, China

    Sirui Li, Jiaqi Wang, Ding Nan, Junhui Dong & Jun Liu

Authors
  1. Xiaotao Deng
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  2. Sirui Li
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  3. Jiaqi Wang
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  4. Ding Nan
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  5. Junhui Dong
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  6. Jun Liu
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Correspondence to Ding Nan or Jun Liu.

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Deng, X., Li, S., Wang, J. et al. Nitrogen-doped zinc/cobalt mixed oxide micro-/nanospheres for high-rate lithium-ion battery anode. Journal of Materials Research 34, 3204–3211 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2019.258

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