Ultralow nitrogen-doped carbon coupled carbon-doped Co3O4 microrods with tunable electron configurations for advanced Li-storage properties

• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2019.135059
• Publication Date: 2019-10-11T16:30:42Z
• Authors: Mingyuan Shi; Zhe Huang; Haimi Liu; Jianwei He; Weihao Zeng; Qian Wu; Yufeng Zhao; Meiyue Tian; Shichun Mu
• Keywords: Carbon fibers

Abstract Doping is a very effective way to optimize the electrochemical performance of electrodes by tuning the electron configurations on an atomic scale. Here, to obtain excellent Co3O4 electrodes for lithium ion storage, a meaningful defect-engineering of carbon-doping Co3O4 microrods strongly coupling with nitrogen-doped carbon (C–Co3O4@N–C) is designed and validated. Compared with unmodified Co3O4 microrods, the defect-rich C–Co3O4@N–C microrod electrode features a remarkably high initial Coulombic efficiency of 84.5% and specific capacity of 1130 mAh g−1 at 0.2 A g−1, excellent cycling stability (1265 and 1036 mAh g−1 capacity retention after 110 and 500 cycles at 0.2 A g−1 and 1 A g−1, respectively) and superior rate capacity (452 mAh g−1 capacity retention after 3000 cycles at 5 A g−1). These results demonstrate that introducing rich defects by carbon dopants and nitrogen-doping carbon can effectively modulate the electron structure and accelerate the carrier transport of materials. This valid stratagem greatly elevates lithium-ion battery performance and can be further extended to other transition metal oxides and fields.