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CoMoO4 nanoparticles have been successfully in-situ formed and simultaneously embedded within the porous carbon nanofibers (CoMoO4/CNFs) via a facile electrospinning-annealing strategy. The porous CoMoO4/CNFs exhibit a specific surface area of 255.3 m2/g and a pore volume of 0.52 cc/g with average pore diameter of 43.5 nm. The carbon content in the CoMoO4/CNFs can be readily controlled by adjusting the annealing temperature. When examined as anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the CoMoO4/CNFs demonstrate superior electrochemical performance, delivering a high reversible capacity of 802 mA h/g after 200 cycles at 200 mA/g and a high-rate capacity of 574 mA h/g at 2000 mA/g. The excellent lithium storage behavior can be attributed to the incorporation of CoMoO4 nanoparticles into the porous N-doped graphitic carbon nanofibers, which efficiently buffer the volume changes of CoMoO4 upon lithiation/delithiation and maintain the overall electrode conductivity/integrity.

Preparing high-efficiency electrocatalyst through facile, low energy consumptive, and time-effective strategy is essential to the hydrogen generation via water electrolysis. Here, we report a galvanic replacement-mediated synthesis of highly active Co–Fe layered double hydroxides (Co–Fe LDHs) at room temperature as advanced electrocatalyst for water oxidation. The disc-like Co precursors were the first proposed as self-sacrificing templates for Co–Fe LDHs. By steady control of the carving of iron ions, the disc-like Co precursors are carved relaxedly and then formed to nanosheet-constructed Co–Fe LDHs. The Fe (II) ion is proved to a more preferable iron precursor than Fe (III) ion for Co–Fe LDHs nanosheets growth, owing to the “slow-growth” process. This catalyst shows a highly electrocatalytic activity towards the OER with low overpotential (η10 mA cm -2 = 270 mV), low Tafel slope (48.7 mV dec-1), and remarkable long-time stability.

We report an amorphorization-hybridization strategy to enhance lithium storage by casting atomically mixed amorphorized SnO2/MoO3 into porous foam-like carbon nanoflakes (denote as SnO2/MoO3@CNFs, or SMC in short), which are simply prepared by annealing tin(II)/molybdenum(IV) 2-ethylhexanoate within CNFs under ambient atmosphere at a low temperature (300 °C). The SnO2/MoO3 loading amount within CNFs can be easily adjusted by controlling the Sn/Mo/C precursors. When examined as lithium ion battery (LIB) anode materials, the amorphorized SnO2/MoO3@CNFs with carbon content of 32 wt% (also denote as SMC-32, in which the number represents the carbon content) deliver a high reversible capacity of 1120.5 mA h/g after 200 cycles at 200 mA/g and then 651.5 mA h/g after another 300 cycles at 2000 mA/g, which is much better than that of the crystalline SnO2/CNFs (carbon content of 34 wt%), MoO3/CNFs (carbon content of 22.7 wt%), or SnO2/MoO3@CNFs (with lower carbon contents of 11 and 25 wt%). The electrochemical measurements as well as the ex situ structure characterization clearly suggest that combination of amorphorization and hybridization of SnO2/MoO3 with CNFs synergistically contributes to the superior lithium storage performance with high pseudocapacitive contribution.

Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution from water splitting driven by visible light is a promising approach to solve energy crisis and environmental problems, and noble-metal-free co-catalysts for boosting the hydrogen evolution reaction are highly desired. Herein, we explore a novel noble-metal-free Fe2P–Co2P co-catalyst for the first time to boost the photocatalytic performance of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4). The resultant Fe2P–Co2P/g-C3N4 with optimum ratio exhibits a hydrogen production rate of 347 μmol h−1 g−1 in the absence of noble-metal co-catalyst, which is 87 times higher than that of pristine g-C3N4 under the same conditions. The significant enhancement in the photocatalytic performance of Fe2P–Co2P/g-C3N4 can be ascribed to the Schottky junction formed between Fe2P–Co2P and g-C3N4, which produces a strong driving force for the transfer of electrons from g-C3N4 to Fe2P–Co2P, promoting the separation and transfer of photogenerated electrons and holes. Furthermore, due to the synergistic effects between the two metal phosphides (Fe2P and Co2P), the Schottky junction in Fe2P–Co2P/g-C3N4 can produce stronger driving force than that in Fe2P/g-C3N4 and Co2P/g-C3N4, resulting in the fact that the hydrogen production rate over Fe2P–Co2P/g-C3N4 is much higher than that over Fe2P/g-C3N4 and Co2P/g-C3N4. This work may shed light on the careful design of co-catalyst by utilizing the synergistic effect of different components.

MoO3 as electrode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) suffers from the poor ionic and electronic conductivity, while hybridizing nanostructured MoO3 with carbon-based materials is regarded as an efficient strategy. Herein, we report the facile synthesis of MoO3 nanoplates within foam-like carbon nanoflakes (CNFs) via the pyrolysis of molybdenum 2-ethtlhexanoate (C48H90MoO12) at a low temperature of 300 °C under ambient atmosphere. Mixing C48H90MoO12 with the highly porous foam-like CNFs allows the sufficient pyrolysis of Mo precursor, which can readily crystallize into MoO3 with plate morphology. The loading amount of MoO3 within CNFs can be easily and precisely controlled by adjusting the relative amount of C48H90MoO12/CNFs, while the plate morphology of MoO3 can be well preserved. The structural characteristics as well as the formation mechanism are investigated. When used as anode material for LIBs, optimized MoO3/CNFs displays superior lithium storage performance, delivering a high discharge capacity of 791 mA h/g after 100 cycles at 500 mA/g and even ∼600 mA h/g at a high rate of 2000 mA/g. Moreover, the present pyrolysis synthetic strategy can be generally applied for low-cost and large-scale fabrication of various MoO3/carbon nanocomposites, which demonstrates great potential in the development of high-performance electrodes for electrochemical energy-storage.

We demonstrate a facile hydrothermal synthesis of SnO 2 /MoO 3-x nanocomposites with ultrafine SnO 2 crystallites uniformly embedded into an amorphous MoO 3-x matrix, which demonstrate superior electrochemical performance as anodes for lithium ion batteries, including long-term cycling stability (953 mA h/g after 100 cycles at 200 mA/g), high rate capability (668.0 mA h/g after 1000 cycles at 1000 mA/g) and high initial Coulombic efficiency (81.3% at 200 mA/g). Synergistic effects of the both components SnO 2 and MoO 3-x on the lithium storage are revealed by electrochemical characterization and supported by TEM and XPS analysis performed at the different discharge/charge states of the respective electrodes. SnO 2 nanocrystallites confined within the amorphous MoO 3-x matrix efficiently buffer the volume changes of Li-Sn alloying-dealloying upon cycling, while the metallic Mo in situ generated by a conversion reaction of MoO 3-x promotes the reversible reaction SnO 2 + Li + ↔ Sn + Li 2 O. In addition, the amorphous MoO 3-x with bulk or surface defects allows for a better lithium insertion and thus enhanced capacity.

Transition metal oxides have attracted extensive attention as promising anodes for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their low cost and high theoretical capacities. However, the large volume changes upon lithiation/delithiation cycling gradually causes the drastic particle pulverization in the electrodes, thus leading to the fast capacity fading and limiting their practical applications. Ternary metal oxides with enhanced electronic conductivity and multiple electrochemically active sites display stepwise lithium storage behaviors, thus efficiently alleviating the volume change induced electrode pulverization problem. Herein, we report the synthesis of hierarchical CoMoO4 microspheres assembled from nanosheets via a facile hydrothermal method and subsequently annealing. When used as anodes for LIBs, the CoMoO4 electrode exhibits superior lithium storage properties, delivering large reversible capacities of 1008 and 896 mA h/g at current densities of 200 and 500 mA/g after 50 cycles, respectively, and notably an exceptional rate capacity of 444 mA h/g at 2000 mA/g. Design of ternary metal oxides with different electrochemically active components and novel nanostructures might be an useful strategy for exploring high-performance LIB anode materials in the next-generation energy storage devices.