Synergistic effect between ZnCoO and CoO induces superior electrochemical performance as anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

The current work describes a facile synthesis of spinel-type ZnCoO along with an additional phase, CoO, by simply maintaining a non-stoichiometric ratio of Zn and Co precursors. Pure ZnCoO and CoO were also synthesized using the same method to compare results. The obtained morphologies of samples show that small-sized nanoparticles are interconnected and form a porous nanosheet-like structure.

Boosting the high-rate performance of lithium-ion battery anodes using MnCoO/CoO nanocomposite interfaces.

Herein, a mesoporous MnCoO/CoO nanocomposite was fabricated using a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-assisted hydrothermal synthesis method by maintaining only the non-stoichiometric ratio of Mn and Co (2 : 6), leading to an extra phase of CoO coupled with MnCoO. Microstructural analysis showed that the obtained sample has a uniform nanowire-like morphology composed of interconnected nanoparticles. The stoichiometric ratio (2 : 4) was maintained to synthesize pure MnCoO for comparative analysis.