Direct growth of urchin-like CuCo2O4 on Ni foam for ultrahigh capacity and excellent rate ability of lithium ion batteries

In this work, a novel urchin-like CuCo2O4 directly grown on three-dimenstional (3D) Ni foam as a binder-free anode materials of lithium-ion batteries via one-step solvothermal method followed by subsequent annealing. The microstructure and phase composition were characterized systematically. The result indicated that the product at a calcination temperature of 550 °C yielded the most outstanding electrochemical properties with incredible reversible specific capacity of 1700 mAh/g after 100 cycles at 200 mA/g and extraordinary rate performance of 1250 mAh/g at 1000 mA/g. The likely contributing factors to the glorious electrochemical performance of the product were related to the unique urchin-like structure containing one-dimenstional (1D) nano-needles, which could tolerate the volume effect during the Li+ insertion/extraction process and provide more channels for the transmission of electron and ions, as well as the introduction of Ni foam accelerating the transmission rate of electron.