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Spatially-controlled porous nanoflake arrays derived from MOFs: An efficiently long-life oxygen electrode

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Abstract

The urgent expectation of the next-generation energy storage devices for electric vehicles has driven researchers’ attention to the lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries due to the satisfied specific energy density. Herein, spatially-controlled Co3O4 nanoflake arrays with three-dimensional-networked morphology are adopted as flexible and self-standing oxygen cathodes in Li-O2 batteries. The spinel-phase Co3O4 nanoflakes were converted from two-dimension metal-organic frameworks with abundant available channels and large specific surface area. The open-structure nanoflake arrays possess sufficient Li2O2/cathode contact interface, great bifunctional catalytic performance and adequate Li2O2 accommodation, leading to the enhanced electrochemical performance of the Li-O2 batteries. As expected, the binder-free porous Co3O4/CT cathode delivers a high capacity of 6,509 mAh·g−1 (200 mA·g−1) and enhanced stability over 100 cycles (limited by 1,000 mAh·g−1). In addition, pouch-type Li-O2 batteries were successfully designed and cycled with Co3O4/CT cathode as oxygen electrodes, demonstrating its potential application for flexible electronics and wearable energy storage devices.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51602153 and 11575084), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20160795), Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. KYCX18_0276), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under (No. LQ18B010005), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. NE2018104), and a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). G. H. also thanks the China Scholarship Council for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Materials and Technology for Energy Conversion, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Hao Gong, Tao Wang, Hairong Xue, Wei Xia, Li Song & Jianping He

  2. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (WPI-MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan

    Hao Gong & Renzhi Ma

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, South China University of Technology, Wushan Road 381, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Xueyi Lu

  4. Testing Center, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China

    Songtao Zhang

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  1. Hao Gong
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  2. Tao Wang
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  5. Wei Xia
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  7. Songtao Zhang
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Correspondence to Tao Wang, Jianping He or Renzhi Ma.

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Gong, H., Wang, T., Xue, H. et al. Spatially-controlled porous nanoflake arrays derived from MOFs: An efficiently long-life oxygen electrode. Nano Res. 12, 2528–2534 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2480-y

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