LAUSR

ZnCo2O4-C porous microspheres featured with ZnCo2O4-in-carbon microstructure are successfully synthesized by a simple citrate-directed hydrothermal process. The experimental results reveal that the polymerization reaction of glucose and Zn2+, Co2+ ions directed by citrate molecules play a critical role in the formation of microspheric Zn-Co/C precursors, which can subsequently be transformed into ZnCo2O4-C porous microspheres after thermal treatment. When applied as anode material in LIBs, ZnCo2O4-C porous microspheres exhibited high available capacity of 998.5 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 200 cycles and 622.5 mAh g−1 at 4 A g−1 over 1000 cycles. The excellent performance can be attributed to the unique structure of ZnCo2O4-C porous microspheres, which provide enhanced electron/ion transport and improved strain accommodation etc.