Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Dec 21;8(1):18034.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36378-0.

Freestanding Three-Dimensional CuO/NiO Core-Shell Nanowire Arrays as High-Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anode

Yin-Wei Cheng  1 , Chun-Hung Chen  1 , Shu-Wei Yang  1 , Yi-Chang Li  1 , Bo-Liang Peng  1 , Chia-Chin Chang  2 , Ruey-Chi Wang  3 , Chuan-Pu Liu  4
Affiliations

Freestanding Three-Dimensional CuO/NiO Core-Shell Nanowire Arrays as High-Performance Lithium-Ion Battery Anode

Yin-Wei Cheng et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

We demonstrate significant improvement of CuO nanowire arrays as anode materials for lithium ion batteries by coating with thin NiO nanosheets conformally. The NiO nanosheets were designed two kinds of morphologies, which are porous and non-porous. By the NiO nanosheets coating, the major active CuO nanowires were protected from direct contact with the electrolyte to improve the surface chemical stability. Simultaneously, through the observation and comparison of TEM results of crystalline non-porous NiO nanosheets, before and after lithiation process, we clearly prove the effect of expected protection of CuO, and clarify the differences of phase transition, crystallinity change, ionic conduction and the mechanisms of the capacity decay further. Subsequently, the electrochemical performances exhibit lithiation and delithiation differences of the porous and non-porous NiO nanosheets, and confirm that the presence of the non-porous NiO coating can still effectively assist the diffusion of Li+ ions into the CuO nanowires, maintaining the advantage of high surface area, and improves the cycle performance of CuO nanowires, leading to enhanced battery capacity. Optimally, the best structure is validated to be non-porous NiO nanosheets, in contrary to the anticipated porous NiO nanosheets. In addition, considering the low cost and facile fabrication process can be realized further for practical applications.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SEM images of (a) nickel pattern, (b) copper pattern, (c) CuO nanowire arrays pattern, (d) CuO nanoparticles in gap region, (e) CuO nanowires, and (f) close-up image of a single CuO nanowire in a grid region.
Figure 2
Figure 2
SEM images of the as-grown NiO nanosheets on the surface of the CuO nanowires by a hydrothermal method using precursors of (a–d) Ni(NO3)2, (e–h) NiSO4, forming different morphologies, where (d,h) are the HRTEM images of the white dotted circle in (b,f), exhibiting porous and non-porous structures, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3
TEM analysis of the CuO/NiO(NiSO4) and CuO/NiO(Ni(NO3)2) nanowires before lithiation. (a) TEM images and (b) diffraction pattern of the CuO/NiO(NiSO4) hierarchical nanowires; (c) TEM images and (d) diffraction pattern of the CuO/NiO(Ni(NO3)2) hierarchical nanowires.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Electrochemical performances of LIBs using (a,b) pure CuO, (c,d) CuO/NiO(Ni(NO3)2), (e,f) CuO/NiO(NiSO4) nanowires, and (g,h) NiO(NiSO4) sheets as anode electrodes. Please note that (a,c,e,g) show potentials and capacities of the lithiation/delithiation cycles, while (b,d,f,h) show lithiation/delithiation capacities and coulombic efficiencies for 100 cycles. The insets of (a,c,e,g) show the electrochemical performances of the first lithiation/delithiation cycle.
Figure 5
Figure 5
TEM analysis of the uncoated CuO nanowires upon reactions with Li ions during the lithiation process of the first cycle: (a) TEM image, and (b) diffraction pattern.
Figure 6
Figure 6
TEM analysis of the CuO/NiO(NiSO4) and CuO/NiO(Ni(NO3)2) nanowires before and after lithiation. (a–d) and (e–h) are for the CuO/NiO(NiSO4) and CuO/NiO(Ni(NO3)2) hierarchical nanowires, respectively, where (a,e) TEM images and (b,f) diffraction patterns before lithiation; (c,g) TEM images and (d,h) diffraction patterns upon the first cycle lithiation.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Schematic diagrams of the procedure for preparing CuO/NiO nanowire arrays: (a) preparing the stainless steel substrate, (b) making the square Cu patterns, (c) growth of the CuO nanowire arrays by thermal oxidation, and (d) growth of the NiO sheets as NiO/CuO core/shell structure by a hydrothermal method, where individual nanowires form (e) porous and (f) non-porous shells when Ni(NO3)2 or NiSO4 is employed as the precursor, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Armstrong MJ, et al. Evaluating the performance of nanostructured materials as lithium-ion battery electrodes. Nano Res. 2014;7:1–62. doi: 10.1007/s12274-013-0375-x. - DOI
    1. Zhao Y, et al. Epitaxial growth of hyperbranched Cu/Cu2O/CuO core–shell nanowire heterostructures for lithium-ion batteries. Nano Res. 2015;8:2763–2776. doi: 10.1007/s12274-015-0783-1. - DOI
    1. Gao XP, et al. Preparation and electrochemical performance of polycrystalline and single crystalline CuO nanorods as anode materials for Li ion battery. J. Phys. Chem. B. 2004;108:5547–5551. doi: 10.1021/jp037075k. - DOI
    1. Zhang W, et al. Facile Microemulsion synthesis of porous CuO nanosphere film and its application in lithium ion batteries. Electrochim. Acta. 2013;113:63–68. doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2013.09.043. - DOI
    1. Saadat S, et al. Coaxial Fe3O4/CuO hybrid nanowires as ultra fast charge/discharge lithium-ion battery anodes. J. Mater. Chem. A. 2013;1:8672–8678. doi: 10.1039/c3ta10885f. - DOI