Elsevier

Materials Letters

Volume 268, 1 June 2020, 127366
Materials Letters

Three-dimensional hollow NiO/NC nanoparticles for high-performance lithium ion batteries

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2020.127366Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Hollow NiO/NC is synthesized by in-situ etching method.

  • The composite shows excellent cycling performance.

  • The outstanding properties are ascribed to the unique structure.

Abstract

NiO nanoparticles decorated on N-doped carbon (NC) nanosheets with hollow structure were synthesized by a hydrothermal process and subsequent calcination process. The synthesized electrode exhibited a large capacity of 1009 mA h g−1 when applied as the anode of lithium ion battery (LIB). It is superior to most reported NiO-based electrodes and the good performances could be ascribed to the hollow structure, nanoparticles and N-doped carbon nanosheets, which are favorable for ion diffusion and electron transfer.

Introduction

Secondary LIBs have been intensively studied due to large energy density and robust stability [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. However, the recent commercialized graphite anodes are plagued with low capacity (372 mA h g−1) and their existing safety issues cannot satisfy the growing demands for higher power density [8], [9]. Transition metal oxides (TMOs) display promising applications in energy storage because of rich reserves and low cost [10], [11], [12], [13]. Among these TMOs, NiO-based materials could be potential anodes for LIBs due to low cost, abundance and large theoretical capacity (718 mA h g−1) [14]. However, the practical applications of the NiO-based materials are usually hampered by poor cycle stability and inferior rate capacity because of the low conductivity and large volume change [1].

Various strategies have been constructed to solve the above-mentioned issues. One of which was meant to shorten the ion diffusion path and buffer the volume expansion by designing various morphologies such as nanowires [15], nanosheets [16], and porous structure [17]. Another strategy to optimize the conductivity of the materials, prevent the active material from agglomeration and improve the electrochemical performance is by dispersing the NiO nanoparticles into the conductive network, such as porous carbon [18], graphene [19] and carbon nanotubes [20]. Although the great advances have been achieved, constructing the NiO-based electrodes for commercial application remains a great challenge.

Herein, we successfully prepared NiO nanoparticles decorated on N-doped carbon (NC) sheet with hollow structure using a hydrothermal method and subsequent heat treatment. The novel structure can effectively decrease the strain during the lithiation/delithiation process and enhance the conductivity of the NiO-based electrode; hence when used as an energy storage material, the synthesized electrode displays outstanding electrochemical properties with a capacity of 1009 mA h g−1, robust stability and rate capability.

Section snippets

Results and discussion

The preparation process of the hollow NiO/NC nanoparticles is shown in Fig. 1a. NiO nanoparticles are coated by carbon and uniformly distributed onto the carbon framework (Fig. 1b). The structure of the NiO/NC nanoparticles is characterized using X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD) (Fig. S1). There are several diffraction peaks located at 37.0°, 43.3°, and 62.6°, which can be indexed to the NiO phase, corresponding to (1 1 1), (2 0 0), and (2 2 0) crystal planes [21]. X-ray photoelectron

Conclusion

In summary, we design a hollow hierarchical NiO nanoparticle-decorated on N-doped carbon nanosheets using a simple hydrothermal method and subsequent heat treatment. NiO nanoparticles are incorporated into a novel N-doped carbon nanosheet matrix with hollow structure to provide support for the structure and the resultant electrode shows large reversible capacity, robust stability and outstanding rate capability. The strategy reported by this work can be extended to other TMOs for other

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Qiu-yan Zhang: Writing - review & editing. Fen-jun Liu: Data curation. Ping-an Gao: Investigation. Peng Zhao: Software. Hong-xia Guo: Data curation. Li Wang: Writing - original draft. Zeng Li Wan: Writing - original draft.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgement

Project Supported by Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education special research program (19JK1003).

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