Cladding transition metal oxide particles with graphene oxide sheets: an efficient protocol to improve their structural stability and lithium ion diffusion rate

Abstract

Transition metal oxides (TMOs), such as Fe3O4, Co3O4, and NiO, assume large lithium ion storage capacities, but suffer severe structure pulverization and rapid electrochemical performance fading during lithiation/delithiation cycling. In the work, the transition metal oxide particles are cladded and bridged with graphene oxide (GO) sheets forming GO/TMO composites with unique three-dimensional network structure. As anode for lithium ion battery, the as-assembled GO/TMO composites show superior reversible specific capacity, rate capability, and cycling stability over the corresponding bare TMOs. It is illustrated that the GO sheets tightly clad on the TMO particle surfaces can suppress the volume variation, prevent the structure pulverization of the particles, and promote the formation of stable solid electrolyte interphase film during the lithiation/delithiation processes, which afford consequently the GO/TMO composites with decent cycling stability and fast lithium ion diffusion rate and decent electrochemical kinetic properties. Therefore, it can be envisaged that to clad and bridge properly with GO sheets should be generally useful for improving the structure stability and the electrochemical performances of the anode materials undergoing the chemical reactive lithium ion storage mechanisms. In addition, the simple synthesis method and low production cost are beneficial to its practical application.