NiO-Co3O4 nanoplate composite as efficient anode in Li-ion battery

•2D/0D (NiO/Co3O4) nanocomposite was synthesized as anode of lithium-ion battery.•The nanocomposite exhibits greatly improved specific capacity and stable cyclability.•The outstanding performance is attributed to hybrid structure and synergistic effect.

ABSTRACTNanocomposites rationally designed in structure and component are highly desirable for the development of electrodes in lithium-ion battery application for that they can take full advantages of different structures and components to achieve superior electrochemical properties. A nanocomposite with the two-dimension (2D) NiO nanoplate of a hexagonal structure and zero-dimension (0D) Co3O4 nanoparticles was synthesized by the hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize the composition, morphology, microstructure and chemical state of the nanocomposite, respectively. As an anode material of lithium-ion battery, the nanocomposite exhibits greatly improved specific capacities and stable cyclability of 633 mA h g−1 at a current density of 100 mA g−1 up to 70 cycles, much higher than the corresponding building block alone. The outstanding performance of the NiO/Co3O4 nanocomposite is attributed to the hybrid structure and the synergistic effect of different components. This large-scale and cost-efficient synthesis can be extended for the design and synthesis of transition metal oxides composite for high-performance electrochemical energy storage.