Synthesis and electrochemical performance of ruthenium oxide-coated carbon nanofibers as anode materials for lithium secondary batteries

In this study, ruthenium oxide (RuO2) coated carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were synthesized and applied as anode materials of Li secondary batteries. The CNFs were grown on Ni foam via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method after CNFs/Ni foam was put into the 0.01 M RuCl3 solution. The ruthenium oxide-coated CNFs/Ni foam was dried in a dryer at 80 °C. The morphologies, compositions, and crystal quality of RuO2/CNFs/Ni foam were characterized by SEM, EDS, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, and XPS. The electrochemical characteristics of RuO2/CNFs/Ni foam as anode of Li secondary batteries were investigated using three-electrode cell. The RuO2/CNFs/Ni foam was directly employed as a working electrode without any binder, and lithium foil was used as the counter and reference electrodes. LiClO4 (1 M) was employed as electrolyte and dissolved in a mixture of propylene carbonate (PC): ethylene carbonate (EC) in a 1:1 volume ratio. The galvanostatic charge/discharge cycling and cyclic voltammetry measurements were carried out at room temperature by using a battery tester. In particular, synthesized RuO2/CNFs/Ni foam showed the highest retention rate (47.4%). The initial capacity (494 mAh/g) was reduced to 234 mAh/g after 30 cycles.