Novel synthesis and electrochemical performance of nano-structured composite with Cu2O embedment in porous carbon as anode material for lithium ion batteries

•A study on Cu2O/porous carbon (PC) composite as a high performance anode for lithium ion batteries.•The embedded structure of nano-sized Cu2O in PC is helpful to the outstanding cycle stability.•PC is capable of accommodating the large volume expansion of Cu2O during cycles.•The composite exhibits excellent reversible capacity and rate performance.

The paper reports a novel nano-structured Cu2O/porous carbon (PC) composite and its application as an anode material for lithium ion batteries. The architecture and the electrochemical performance of the as-prepared composite are investigated through structure characterization and galvanostatic charge/discharge test. Cu2O nanoparticles are well-distributed in the pore channels owing to the nanoscale confinement effect apart from the edges of PC matrix. The composite exhibits a high reversible capacity of 884.4 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles, especially an excellent rate capability of 600.8 mA h g−1 when cycled at the current density of 1000 mA g−1. The outstanding lithium storage properties may be attributed to the designed embedment structure of the composite. The nano-sized Cu2O loaded in the PC promotes the reaction of lithiation/delithiation owing to the large contact area and short lithium ion diffusion distance. Additionally, PC with highly-developed porous structure is capable of accommodating large volume expansion of Cu2O and preventing the aggregation of particles upon continuous cycling.

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