Hydrothermal-template synthesis and electrochemical properties of Co3O4/nitrogen-doped hemisphere-porous graphene composites with 3D heterogeneous structure

Despite the high capacity of Co₃O₄ employed in lithium-ion battery anodes, the reduced conductivity and grievous volume change of Co₃O₄ during long cycling of insertion/extraction of lithium-ions remain a challenge. Herein, an optimized nanocomposite, Co₃O₄/nitrogen-doped hemisphere-porous graphene composite (Co₃O₄/N-HPGC), is synthesized by a facile hydrothermal-template approach with polystyrene (PS) microspheres as a template. The characterization results demonstrate that Co₃O₄ nanoparticles are densely anchored onto graphene layers, nitrogen elements are successfully introduced by carbamide and the nanocomposites maintain the hemispherical porous structure. As an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the composite material not only maintains a relatively high lithium storage capacity (the first discharge specific capacity can reach 2696 mA h g⁻¹), but also shows significantly improved rate performance (1188 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹, 344 mA h g⁻¹ at 5 A g⁻¹) and enhanced cycling stability (683 mA h g⁻¹ after 500 cycles at 1 A g⁻¹). The enhanced electrochemical properties of Co₃O₄/N-HPGC nanocomposites can be ascribed to the synergistic effects of Co₃O₄ nanoparticles, novel hierarchical structure with hemisphere-pores and nitrogen-containing functional groups of the nanomaterials. Therefore, the developed strategy can be extended as a universal and scalable approach for integrating various metal oxides into graphene-based materials for energy storage and conversion applications.

The Co₃O₄/N-HPGC nanocomposites synthesized by a hydrothermal-template approach with polystyrene microspheres as the template possess excellent electrochemical performance.