Highly Stable Metal Mono-Oxide Alloy Nanoparticles and Their Potential as Anode Materials for Li-Ion Battery

Abstract

We report the synthesis of Mn x Ni1‑x O and Mn y Co1‑y O alloy nanoparticles by the thermal decomposition of the metal precursor in a surfactant. The different sized and shaped Mn x Ni1‑x O and Mn y Co1‑y O nanoparticles could be obtained by controlling precursors and surfactants. These alloy nanoparticles are antiferromagnetic and their stability is better than that of pure metal mono-oxides. On the basis of these results, we expect these alloy nanoparticles to have potential applications as electrodes in energy-generating devices such as Li-ion batteries. The higher Ni content (Mn0.19Ni0.81O) electrode exhibited a large reversible capacity (650 mAh g–1), a better initial efficiency (56%), and an improved rate and cycle performance, which was ascribed to higher electrical/electrolyte conductivity or improved surface film property. To our best knowledge, the reversible Li storage in metal oxides like MnO or NiO nanoparticles with about 10 nm diameter material itself has not been reported yet, indicative of the originality of the anode application of our materials. Also, we could expect a higher stability by addition of Mn into theconversion anode and reduction of material cost when compared with the very expensive Sn- or Mo-based oxide materials, electrolyte conductivity, or improved surface film property.

Controlled synthesis of MnxFe1−xO concave nanocubes and highly branched cubic mesocrystals

“…16 The transition metal oxides such as Mn, Co, Ni, and Fe have various oxidation states that exhibit different properties and the high oxidation states have been extensively investigated, such as spinel ferrites MFe 2 O 4 (M = Mn, Co, Ni, Fe), 17,18 Fe 2 O 3 , 19 Co 3 O 4 , 20 Mn 2 O 3 , Mn 3 O 4 , and MnO 2 . 21 At the same time, the mono-oxides of transition metals such as MnO, CoO, NiO and FeO have also attracted a lot of attention due to their wide applications in battery electrodes, 22,23 catalysts, 24 MRI contrast agents, 25 and magnetism studies. 5,26 Face centered cubic (fcc) structured MnO and FeO with different shapes such as nanospheres, 27,28 nanocubes, 29,30 nanohexapods, 31 nanorods, 32 and truncated nanooctahedrons 33 have been successfully synthesized.…”

An Investigation into the Charge‐Storage Mechanism of MnO@Graphite as Anode for Lithium‐Ion Batteries at Low Temperature

“…Such a narrow size distribution was attributed to the existence of oleic acid, which served as not only a reductive agent to obtain the MnO and but also a surfactant to avoid excessive agglomeration of the targeted MnO nanoparticles. [17,18] The synthesized graphite with about 10 layers has been observed in high magnification TEM image ( Figure S2). The basal distances of the lattice in the selected areas are 0.259 nm, corresponding to the (111) lattice plane of MnO (Inset in Figure 2e).…”

“…MnO nanoparticles showed a homogeneous size of about 25 nm (Figure d and Figure S1), in agreement with the XRD result. Such a narrow size distribution was attributed to the existence of oleic acid, which served as not only a reductive agent to obtain the MnO and but also a surfactant to avoid excessive agglomeration of the targeted MnO nanoparticles ,. The synthesized graphite with about 10 layers has been observed in high magnification TEM image (Figure S2).…”

Effect of Grain-Boundaries in NiO Nanosheet Layers Room-Temperature Sensing Mechanism under NO2

“…Therefore, according to Eq. (14), the scattering mobility of the PC NiO can be expressed as Eq. (15), and the scattering mobility of the SC NiO can be expressed as Eq.…”