Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured Co3O4 fibers used as anode materials for lithium ion batteries
Introduction
Nanostructured materials have been of both fundamental and technological interest because of their novel physical and chemical properties and wide range of potential application in advanced devices [1]. Therefore, the preparation of nanostructured materials is a subject of intensive research in materials chemistry and nanotechnology [2], [3]. As a type of nanostructure with specific morphologies, one-dimensional nanomaterials play an important role in the systematic study of structure-property relationships [4], [5]. In particular, nanostructured fibers as one-dimensional materials have a large number of advantages over bulk ceramics because of increased anisotropy, crystal axis orientation of grains, high thermal stability and preferred geometrical features [6], [7]. Nanoparticles exhibit a peculiar performance different from conventional materials because of their small-size; quantum-size and special surface-interface effect. Therefore, it has been predicted that properties such as thermal and electrical conductivity and magnetic, electrical and optical behavior can be enhanced in nanostructured fibers composed of nanoscale particles [8]. Long functional nanostructured fibers are attractive because they can provide increased specific strength over monolithic ceramics as well as excellent flexibility [9]. Numerous effects have been devoted to the synthesis of various nanostructured metal oxide fibers [10], [11], [12].
As an important transition metal oxide material, Co3O4 has a broad perspective of utilizable materials for sensors [13], [14], catalysts [15], magnetic devices [16], and high-temperature solar selective absorbers [17]. Currently, Co3O4 has important application as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries and its electrochemical properties have been extensively studied [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. In this report, nanostructured Co3O4 fibers were synthesized using citric acid as a chelating agent by a simple sol–gel related electrospinning technique. The nanostructured Co3O4 fibers as anode materials had a high initial discharge capacity of 816 mAh/g and exhibited good cycle stability.
Section snippets
Synthesis
All reagents were of analytical grade without further purification. The nanostructured Co3O4 fibers were synthesized as follows: 0.02 mol (4.981 g) of cobalt acetate salt (Co(CH3COO)2·4H2O) was dissolved in 20 ml of distilled water, and 0.024 mol (5.041 g) of citric acid (C6H8O7·H2O) was added into 30 ml of distilled water. The two solutions were mixed with stirring, and the resulting solution was aged at 70 °C for ca. 18 h to turn into a viscous transparent pink sol. Subsequently, the
Fabrication of the nanostructured Co3O4 fibers
Fig. 1 shows the TG curves of the Co3O4 xerogel fibers. It shows that the weight loss of the xerogel precursors occurs in three steps, at 40–200, 200–300 and 300–320 °C. The first weight loss is attributed to the departure of superficial and structural water and free acetic acid [9]. A marked weight loss occurs at 200–300 °C, which is due to the combustion of citric acid and acetate ions. An abrupt weight loss appears at 300–320 °C, and there is half of the weight loss during this stage because
Conclusions
In this study, nanostructured Co3O4 fibers from 600 nm to 1.0 μm in diameter were prepared by a sol-electrospinning technique using cobalt acetate as the starting material. Electrochemical measurements show that the nanostructured Co3O4 fiber electrode delivers a high discharge capacity and has good cyclic stability, which may make it a promising anode material.
Acknowledgement
Thanks to Dr. Edward C. Mignot of Shandong University for linguistic advice.
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