Preparation and Lithium Storage Performance of NiO/ C@CNT Anode Material

Core-shell polypyrrole-based carbon@carbon nanotube (C@CNT) was incorporated into nanosheet-assembled NiO microsphere to produce a porous hybrid (NiO/C@CNT) as an anode in lithium secondary batteries. Results show that the resultant NiO/C@CNT exhibits the enhanced capacity and cyclic stability compared with pure NiO and NiO/CNT. The hybrid delivers a reversible capacity of 573 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 50 mA·g−1 over 20 cycles with a capacity retention of 68.6%. The performance improvement results from the conductive buffering of core-shell C@CNT. It is likely that many benefits of C@CNT such as porous structure, large surface area, high electrochemical activity, high electron conductivity and good wettability, facilitate to avoid significant volume change and thus decrease the capacity fading of the electrode during lithiation and delithiation, as well as enhance the mass transfer efficiency.