Porous Nanowired Co3O4 Anode Increasing Lithium Ion Battery Performance

Porous cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) has been a promising anode material for lithium ion batteries because of its excellent redox activity, high specific capacity, and relatively low cost. In this study, porous nanowired Co₃O₄ was successfully synthesized on the 3D porous nickel foam substrate using a facile hydrothermal approach. The porous nanowired structure of Co₃O₄ was demonstrated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the anode phase structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). During charge/discharge processes, cyclic voltammetry (CV) was performed to investigate electrochemical reaction of Co₃O₄ with lithium. As expected, the proposed porous nanowired anode obtained good cyclic performance and rate capability under galvanostatic charge/discharge test. Our results demonstrated that this anode design could effectively improve Co₃O₄ anode performance resulting from the special porous nanostructure and the high contact area of the anode with electrolyte.