Candle soot-metal-organic framework-based hierarchical electrode as high-performance anode for Li-ion batteries

Recently, cobalt oxide-based materials have been considered high-performance anode materials. However, co-balt oxide materials display drawbacks such as capacity fade, poor cycle life, and substantial structural strain. In this work, we report a facile synthesis of carbon-cobalt oxide composite to improve the electrode's storage ca-pabilities and cycle life. First, metal-organic framework-based cobalt oxide nano leaves are synthesized by simple coprecipitation followed by calcination. After that, candle soot-derived carbon nanoparticles are uni-formly deposited on the cobalt oxide nano leaves by a simple flame synthesis method to form a composite electrode. The fractal-like interconnected carbon nanoparticles improve the electron conducting pathways. In contrast, metal-organic framework-derived porous cobalt oxide nano leaves enhance energy storage abilities through reversible conversion reactions. The superior performance of the composite electrode is established from the galvanostatic charge-discharge experiments. Also, the composite electrode has delivered outstanding specific capacities of 811 and 503 mAh g-1 at 50 and 1000 mA g-1 current densities, respectively. Furthermore, the composite electrode exhibited good cyclic stability at 1000 mA g-1 current density by delivering an excellent specific charge capacity of 490 mAh g-1 even after 400 cycles. Therefore, these superior electrochemical properties confirm the potential applicability in high-performance and stable Li-ion batteries.