title: Nanocrystal-constructed mesoporous CoFe₂O₄ nanowire arrays aligned on flexible carbon fabric as integrated anodes with enhanced lithium storage properties.
abstract: A novel and facile two-step strategy is successfully developed for the large-scale fabrication of hierarchical mesoporous CoFe2O4 nanowire arrays (NWAs) on flexible carbon fabric as integrated anodes for highly efficient and reversible lithium storage. The synthesis involves the co-deposition of uniform bimetallic (Co, Fe) carbonate hydroxide hydrate precursor NWAs on carbon fabric and subsequent thermal transformation to spinel CoFe2O4 without damaging the morphology. The as-prepared CoFe2O4 nanowires have unique mesoporous structures, which are constructed by many interconnected nanocrystals with sizes of about 15-20 nm. The typical size of the nanowires is in the range of 70-100 nm in width and up to several micrometers in length. Such a hybrid nanostructure electrode presented here not only simplifies electrode processing, but also promises fast electron transport/collection and ion diffusion, and withstands volume variation upon prolonged charge/discharge cycling. As a result, the binder-free CoFe2O4/carbon fabric composite exhibits a high reversible capacity of 1185.75 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 200 mA g(-1), and a superior rate capability. More importantly, a reversible capacity as high as ∼950 mA h g(-1) can be retained and there is no obvious decay after 150 cycles.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Aerospace Advanced Materials and Performance of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China. songmei_li@buaa.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Songmei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiaoyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jianhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu