One-Pot Synthesis Strategy of Sea Urchin-Like Hollow Microspheres Comprising Moox Nanorods Attached Via N-Doped C as Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

A one-pot synthetic strategy that takes only 2.3 seconds was developed for the fabrication of sea urchin-like hollow microspheres comprising MoOx nanorods attached via N-doped C for the first time. The inclusion of diethylenetriamine as a starting material played a key role in the formation of MoOx nanorods constituting the hollow shell. Additionally, the MoOx nanorods were coated and entangled with N-doped C, which established a rapid pathway for electrons and Li ions during the charge–discharge process when used as anodes for Li-ion batteries. Moreover, the MoOx nanorods constituting the shell allowed facile diffusion of the electrolyte and enhanced the contact between the electrode surface and the electrolyte. Therefore, superior cycling performance was achieved: the nanostructure produced a discharge capacity of 794 mA h g-1 after 400 cycles at 0.2 A g-1 with a low decay rate of 0.074% per cycle. Discharge capacities of 891, 589, 358, 250, and 193 mA h g-1 were obtained at current densities of 0.5, 1.5, 3.0, 5.0, and 7.0 A g-1, respectively. The facile synthetic strategy to prepare hollow microspheres using spray pyrolysis has important potential for the mass production of hierarchically hollow nanostructures in a wide range of fields, including energy storage.

Keywords: molybdenum oxide, hollow microsphere, spray pyrolysis, anodes, lithium-ion batteries