Batch-scale synthesis of porous zinc manganese oxide with large specific surface area for Li-ion battery anodes

Abstract

The spinel bimetal oxides with high specific surface area (SSA) are favorable to promote the energy storage performance of Li-ion batteries (LIBs). A facile and fast colloidal solution combustion strategy is explored to the batch-scale synthesis of porous zinc manganese oxide (ZnMn2O4) with tunable SSA. It is revealed that the volume of colloidal silica solution has a great influence on the SSA of porous ZnMn2O4. The porous ZnMn2O4–300 owns a maximum SSA of 186.4 m2 g−1, and a narrow pore size centered at 4–6 nm. Profiting from the high SSA and abundant mesopores, ZnMn2O4–300 electrode demonstrates superior Li storage performance when employed as LIB's anodes, delivering a desirable discharge capacity of 1784.3 mAh g−1 at the 1st discharge process, and 980.4 mAh g−1 of discharge capacity is remained at 500 mA g−1 after 165 cycles. Therefore, porous ZnMn2O4–300 has a broad developing prospect for LIB's anodes.