Controlled construction of hierarchical hollow micro/nano urchin-like β-MnO2 with superior lithium storage performance

Abstract

The micro/nano-structure materials have been demonstrated to deliver excellent lithium storage performance due to combining the advantages of the micro-materials and nano-materials. In this paper, we find that the evolution and formation of micro/nano hollow urchin β-MnO2 in the short reaction time via a simple hydrothermal method without adding auxiliary reagent. When used as anode of lithium ions half-cells, the micro/nano hollow urchin β-MnO2 shows a superior lithium-storage performance. They display after 100 cycles a discharge capacity of 455.12 mAh g−1 at 20 mA g−1 with capacity retention of 78.97% from the 11th to 100th cycle, much higher than the building blocks alone. Even at 1000 mA g−1, the reversible capacity can be maintained at 160.35 mAh g−1. The outstanding performances stem from the synergistic effect of microsize, one dimension primary units, sufficient void space and hollow structure. The result indicates that the as-synthesized micro/nano hollow urchin RMDO is a kind of competitive anode materials of lithium power batteries in future.