title: Rational synthesis of carbon-coated hollow Ge nanocrystals with enhanced lithium-storage properties.
abstract: High-capacity anode materials based on alloy-type group IV elements always have large volume expansion during lithiation when they are used in lithium-ion batteries. Designing hollow structures is a well-established strategy to accommodate the volume change because of sufficient internal void space. Here we report a facile template-free route to prepare hollow Ge nanospheres without using any templates through a quasi-microemulsion method. Ge nanocrystals are preferably self-assembled along the interface of liquid vesicles between water and tetrahydrofuran, and well-defined hollow architectures of ∼50 nm in diameter are formed. Both the wall thickness and hollow interiors can be easily tuned. After subsequent carbon coating via pyrolysis of acetylene, the as-formed Ge@C nanocomposite with hollow interiors exhibits a highly reversible capacity of about 920 mA h g(-1) at 200 mA g(-1) over 50 cycles, and excellent rate capability. The small size and the high structural integrity of hollow Ge@C structures contribute to the superior lithium-storage performances.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chaoji
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jingwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yunhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology School of Materials Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. huxl@mail.hust.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xianluo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu