Synthesis of nickel oxide nanospheres by a facile spray drying method and their application as anode materials for lithium ion batteries

•NiO nanospheres are prepared by a spray drying method.•NiO nanospheres are composed of interconnected nanoparticles.•NiO nanospheres show good lithium ion storage properties.

Fabrication of advanced anode materials is indispensable for construction of high-performance lithium ion batteries. In this work, nickel oxide (NiO) nanospheres are fabricated by a facial one-step spray drying method. The as-prepared NiO nanospheres show diameters ranging from 100 to 600 nm and are composed of nanoparticles of 30–50 nm. As an anode for lithium ion batteries, the electrochemical properties of the NiO nanospheres are investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge tests. The specific reversible capacity of NiO nanospheres is 656 mA h g−1 at 0.1 C, and 476 mA h g−1 at 1 C. The improvement of electrochemical properties is attributed to nanosphere structure with large surface area and short ion/electron transfer path.

Graphical abstractNiO nanospheres prepared by a facile spray drying method show high lithium ion storage performance as anode of lithium ion battery.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide