LAUSR

Abstract As high capacity anode materials, transition metal oxides show main shortage of poor cyclic stability. In this work, porous zinc cobaltate micro-cube was prepared by hydrothermal plus calcination process. At annealing temperature of 600 °C, the ZnCo2O4 displayed uniform particle size of ∼13 μm and large tap density of 2.4 g−1cm3. During electrochemical test, the material exhibited outstanding capacity retention of 93% (reversible charge capacity of 840 mAhg−1) after 200 cycles of charge/discharge process at 0.2 Ag‒1. Even over 1000 cycles at 1 Ag‒1, the charge capacity was still recorded as 588 mAhg−1 (much higher than 372 mAhg−1 of graphite anode), with retention of 76%. It could be demonstrated that the ZnCo2O4 porous cube expressed potential application prospect for anode materials of lithium-ion batteries.