Spherical/Porous Cox-Mny-O4 Spinel Compound for High Performance Lithium Rechargeable Battery Electrodes

Transition metal oxides such as cobalt- or manganese-based oxides have been proved to be promising materials for applications in high voltage and high energy density Li-ion batteries (LIBs) [1-3]. Most of those ²conversion reaction² involved metal oxides, however, suffer from limited reversible capacity and fast capacity fade due to their poor electronic conductivity and large volume changes. Thus, fabrication of nanostructured materials and/or intrinsically enhanced electrically conductive materials have been demonstrated to be effective ways to alleviate these problems [4,5]. In this work, ternary Co-Mn-O spinel oxides have been investigated as electrode materials for Li-ion and Li-air rechargeable battery. Crystalline spinel structured CoMn₂O₄ and MnCo₂O₄ compounds with nano/submicrorods were synthesized by a using hydrothermal reaction. When evaluated as an anode material for LIBs, the as-synthesized spherical/porous spinels exhibited superior initial charge/discharge capacity including good rate capability. The developed hierarchical structure with high surface area, catalyst(CoMn₂O₄ and MnCo₂O₄)/activated carbon, can also be applied to the analogous hybrid cathodes used in Li-air batteries.