Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes as High-Performance Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Haipeng Li; Zhengjun Liu; Shuang Yang; Yan Zhao; Yuting Feng; Zhumabay Bakenov; Chengwei Zhang; Fuxing Yin

doi:10.3390/ma10101102

Facile Synthesis of ZnO Nanoparticles on Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes as High-Performance Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Materials (Basel). 2017 Sep 21;10(10):1102. doi: 10.3390/ma10101102.

Authors

Haipeng Li¹, Zhengjun Liu², Shuang Yang³, Yan Zhao⁴, Yuting Feng⁵, Zhumabay Bakenov⁶, Chengwei Zhang⁷, Fuxing Yin⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. lihp_hebut@outlook.com.
² School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. lzj125@126.com.
³ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. hebutyangshuang@163.com.
⁴ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. yanzhao1984@hebut.edu.cn.
⁵ Synergy Innovation Institute of GDUT, Heyuan 517000, China. 18222385469@163.com.
⁶ Institute of Batteries LLC, Nazarbayev University, 53 Kabanbay Batyr Avenue, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan. zbakenov@nu.edu.kz.
⁷ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. zhangpan0411@sina.com.
⁸ School of Materials Science & Engineering, Research Institute for Energy Equipment Materials, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Materials Laminating Fabrication and Interface Control Technology, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China. yinfuxing@hebut.edu.cn.

Abstract

ZnO/nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (ZnO/NCNT) composite, prepared though a simple one-step sol-gel synthetic technique, has been explored for the first time as an anode material. The as-prepared ZnO/NCNT nanocomposite preserves a good dispersity and homogeneity of the ZnO nanoparticles (~6 nm) which deposited on the surface of NCNT. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals the formation of ZnO nanoparticles with an average size of 6 nm homogeneously deposited on the surface of NCNT. ZnO/NCNT composite, when evaluated as an anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), exhibits remarkably enhanced cycling ability and rate capability compared with the ZnO/CNT counterpart. A relatively large reversible capacity of 1013 mAh·g^-1 is manifested at the second cycle and a capacity of 664 mAh·g^-1 is retained after 100 cycles. Furthermore, the ZnO/NCNT system displays a reversible capacity of 308 mAh·g^-1 even at a high current density of 1600 mA·g^-1. These electrochemical performance enhancements are ascribed to the reinforced accumulative effects of the well-dispersed ZnO nanoparticles and doping nitrogen atoms, which can not only suppress the volumetric expansion of ZnO nanoparticles during the cycling performance but also provide a highly conductive NCNT network for ZnO anode.

Keywords: ZnO/nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (ZnO/NCNT) composite; anode; highly-dispersed ZnO nanoparticles; lithium ion battery; sol-gel.