A sliced orange-shaped ZnCo₂O₄ material as anode for high-performance lithium ion battery

Sliced orange-shaped ZnCo₂O₄ (SOS-ZCO) constructed by radically aligned subunit nanoparticles is solvothermally synthesized for the first time. When used as lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode, SOS-ZCO demonstrates excellent electrochemical performances benefiting from its advantageous structural features. It shows a high reversible capacity of 890 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.2 A g⁻¹ and good rate capability with capacity retention of 47% at 5 A g⁻¹. Moreover, it displays a superior cycling stability with 96.5% capacity retention over 130 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹ and 92.3% capacity retention over 300 cycles at 1 A g⁻¹. It is noteworthy that during high-rate cycling, SOS-ZCO anode does not show common pulverization phenomenon to form irregular morphology, but experiences regular morphology transformation. In the first 100 high-rate cycles, SOS-ZCO anode transforms into a network of randomly arranged nanowires with high firmness, leading to negligible capacity fading in the following 200 cycles. Therefore, novel SOS-ZCO micro-/nanostructure exhibits great potential for high-performance LIB anode.