A metal–organic framework approach to engineer ZnO/Co3ZnC/N-doped carbon composite as anode material for boosting lithium storage

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds 2022-11, Vol.923, p.166436, Article 166436
• Main Authors: Ou, Guanrong, Chen, Jiahao, Lu, Man, Liu, Jiawei, Zhang, Xiaoke, Lin, Xiaoming, Wu, Yongbo, Zeb, Akif, Reddy, R. Chenna Krishna, Xu, Zhiguang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anode materials; Anodes; Carbon; Electrode materials; Energy storage; Lithium; Lithium storage; Lithium-ion batteries; Metal-organic framework; Metal-organic frameworks; N-doped carbon; Rechargeable batteries; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2022.166436

Conventional commercial lithium-ion battery (LIBs) anode materials are being proven hard to meet the demands of the modern advanced energy market due to their disadvantages, such as limited rate capability and theoretical capacity. Elaborate design of novel anode materials with higher energy storage properties has become a major focus of research recently. In this work, a N-doped carbon ZnO/Co3ZnC (named as ZnO/Co3ZnC) composite is facilely fabricated employing metal-organic framework (MOF) as a sacrificial template. In addition to the formation of N-doped carbon frameworks, the introduction of oxygen vacancies (OV) as well as the unique and stable structure are also conducive to boosting lithium storage properties. As expected, the ZnO/Co3ZnC based anode for LIBs displayed remarkable lithium storage properties, such as the specific capacity as high as 1162.4 mAh g−1 (after 300 cycles under 0.2 A g−1) and excellent high-rate performance (~ 533.8 and 473.3 mAh g−1 under 0.5 and 1 A g−1, respectively.) Consequently, this study reinforces the beneficial role of above-mentioned characteristics to render ZnO/Co3ZnC an appealing anode material for LIBs. [Display omitted] •N-doped carbon ZnO/Co3ZnC composite is fabricated via bimetallic metal-organic framework.•N-doped frameworks and oxygen vacancies were beneficial to boosting lithium storage.•ZnO/Co3ZnC displays an excellent capacity of 1162.4 mAh g−1 (300 cycles, 0.2 A g−1).