title: Nanoelectrical investigation and electrochemical performance of nickel-oxide/carbon sphere hybrids through interface manipulation.
abstract: Advanced hetero-nanostructured materials for electrochemical devices, such as Li-ion batteries (LiBs), dramatically depend on each functional component and their interfaces to transport and storage charges, where the bottleneck is the sluggish one in series. In this work, we prepare Ni(OH)2@C hybrids through a continuous feeding in reflux and followed by a hydrothermal treatment. The as-prepared Ni(OH)2@C can be further converted into NiO@C hybrids after thermal annealing. As a control, Ni(OH)2&C and NiO&C nanocomposites have also been prepared. Peakforce Tuna measurement shows the conductivity of the NiO@C hybrids is higher than that of NiO&C composites in nanoscale. To further investigate the quality of the interface, 100 charge/discharge cycles of the hybrids are performed in LiBs. The capacity retention of hybrid materials has significantly improved than the simple carbon composites. The enhancement of the electrochemical performance is attributed to the better electric conductivity and smaller charge transfer impedance and strong covalent interface between nickel species and carbon spheres obtained through the controlled seeded deposition.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: xiaogang.yang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: zhangygzhang@163.com.
authors.forename: Yan'ge
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: wgdpb7@163.com.
authors.forename: Guodong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: zcxzhucongxu@163.com.
authors.forename: Congxu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: 410418512@qq.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China. Electronic address: gyh-2007@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Yuanhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Material Test and Analysis Lab, Engineering and Materials Science Experiment Center, University of Science and Technology of China, Jinzhai Road 96, Hefei 230026, China. Electronic address: tianjie@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion of Henan Province and Institute of Surface Micro and Nano Materials, Xuchang University, Henan 461000, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Nano Functional Materials and Applications, Kaifeng, Henan 475000, China. Electronic address: zzheng@xcu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zheng
keywords: Impedance; Interfaces; Lithium ion battery; Metal oxides/carbon hybrids; Nanoelectrical conductivity; Stability