A rod-on-tube CoMoO4@hydrogel composite as lithium-ion battery anode with high capacity and stable rate-performance.

Hierarchical materials have been considered promising for secondary battery electrodes owing to their capability of accommodating volumetric change of active materials and providing short pathways for rapid transportation of ions and electrons. Herein, we present a rod-on-tube composite consisting of cobalt molybdate (CoMoO 4) nanotubes coating with polyaniline (PANI) hydrogel nanorods, which exhibits a high electrochemical performance as Li-ion battery anode. The hierarchical CoMoO 4 @PANI is prepared through in-situ polymerizing PANI nanorods on the CoMoO 4 nanotubes. The rod-on-tube structure could alleviate the volumetric change of CoMoO 4 during lithiation-delithiation, and improve conductivity for electron transfer. When cycling at 0.5 A g-1, the presented CoMoO 4 @PANI anodes exhibit a large capacity of 805 mAh g-1 after 150 cycles along with a Coulombic efficiency of 99%, which are both exceeding those of the pristine CoMoO 4. A well-recoverable rate-performance is achieved. Furthermore, the density of state (DOS) and band gap of the CoMoO 4 @PANI and pristine CoMoO 4 are also investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Image 1 • A rod-on-tube CoMoO 4 @hydrogel composite anode is presented. • Rod-on-tube structure enables rapid transportation of ions and electrons. • CoMoO 4 @hydrogel composite exhibits a high electrochemical performance. • Density function theory calculations verify an improved conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]