Graphene‐based materials have been extensively researched as a means improve the electrochemical performance of transition metal oxides in Li‐ion battery applications, however an understanding of the effect of the different synthesis routes, and the factors underlying the oft‐stated better performance of the hybrid materials (compared to the pure metal oxides) is not always demonstrated. For the first time, we report a range of synthetic routes to produce graphene oxide (GO)‐coated CuO, micro‐particle/GO “bundles” as well as nano‐particulates decorated on GO sheets to enable a comparison with CuO and its carbon‐coated analogue, as confirmed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging and Raman spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry was utilized to probe the lithiation/delithiation mechanism of CuO by scanning at successively decreasing vertex potentials, uncovering the importance of a full reduction to Cu metal on the reduction step. The GO hybrid materials clearly show enhanced specific capacities and cycling stabilities comparative to the CuO, with the most promising material achieving a capacity of 746 mAh g−1 and capacity retention of 92 % after 30 cycles, which is the highest stable capacity quoted in literature for CuO. The simple cyclic voltammetry technique used in this work could be implemented to help further understand any conversion‐type anode materials, in turn accelerating the research and industrial development of conversion anodes.

Invited for this month′s cover is the group of Robert A. W. Dryfe at the University of Manchester in collaboration with William Blythe Ltd. (Lancashire). The image shows bees building a graphene‐containing battery that powers an external circuit, depicted by a purple curve. This curve represents a cyclic voltammogram, specifically of copper oxide during a charge/discharge cycle in a Li‐ion half‐cell, as presented in the article. The use of bees has both scientific and geographic significance. For the former, bees are assisting in building the honeycomb‐like hexagonal graphene lattice, just as they do in nature. Geographically, bees are symbolic to the locations of both collaborators on this project, the University of Manchester and William Blythe (Lancashire). The Full Paper itself is available at 10.1002/cssc.201902784.