Hollow Co2P/Co-carbon-based hybrids for lithium storage with improved pseudocapacitance and water oxidation anodes

A porous hollow hybrid nanoarchitecture that consist of Co2P/Co nanoparticles confined in nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) and carbon nanotube (CNT) hollow nanocubes (denoted as H-Co2P/Co-NC/CNT) has been rational designed as anode for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) and electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Such design involves simple synthetic process of using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as sacrificial precursor. The uniform cubic-shaped H-Co2P/Co-NC/CNT hybrid is investigated with several intriguing advantages, including improved structural integrity, superior electronic conductivity, hollow architecture and large specific surface area and so on. The as-synthesized H-Co2P/Co-NC/CNT displays excellent lithium storage behaviour in terms of long cycle life (> 500 cycles), remarkable rate performance (up to 5 A g(-1)), high reversible capacity (601 mA h g(-1) at 0.2 A g(-1)) and high pseudocapacitance behavior. Besides, it also delivers a superior catalytic property for OER with a small Tafel slope of 45.3 mV dec(-1) and overpotential of 256 mV (at 10 mA cm(-2)). The excellent performance can be attributed to the synergistic effect between Co2P/Co and NC/CNT, leading to enhanced conductivity through high pseudocapacitance contribution. This present work demonstrates that MOF-derived H-Co2P/Co-NC/CNT hybrid is a promising candidate for high-performance multifunctional energy systems. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The editorial office of Journal of Materials Science & Technology.