Preparation of biomass-derived hierarchically porous carbon/Co3O4 nanocomposites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries.

In this work, we demonstrated an accessible and facile method to prepare hierarchically porous carbon (HPC)/Co 3 O 4 nanocomposites (HPCC). Biomaterials-derived HPC was used as the appropriate carrier to load Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles due to its hierarchically porous structure and high surface area of 163 m 2 g −1 . The HPCC nanocomposites were used as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and showed good electrochemical performance, delivering an initial discharge of 1566 and charge capacity of 1314 mA h g −1 with a initial coulombic efficiency of 83.9%. Additionally, it could still maintain a high reversible capacity of 1215 mA h g −1 after 100 cycles at a specific current of 100 mA g −1 , which is much better than that of HPC, and Co 3 O 4 and some Co 3 O 4 -based nanocomposites. The good electrochemical performance was mainly attributed to the good distribution of small Co 3 O 4 on HPC, the high surface area and hierarchical pores of HPC to effectively load a number of small Co 3 O 4 , alleviate the severe volume expansion during cycling and improve the electrical conductivity of nanocomposites, and the synergistic effects from the HPC and Co 3 O 4 . Therefore, the HPCC nanocomposites were expected to be an advanced anode material for LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]