Hydrothermal synthesis of nano spheroid‐like ZnMn 2 O 4 materials as high‐performance anodes for lithium‐ion batteries

Abstract

Spent zinc-manganese batteries contain valuable elements, especially Zn and Mn, and recycling these metal elements can realize the sustainable development of resources. In this paper, a novel process of preparing ZnMn2O4 as anode material for lithium-ion batteries from the spent zinc-manganese battery is present. Nano ZnMn2O4 is synthesized by the low-temperature hydrothermal method, and the formation mechanism is discussed. The structure, morphology, and composition of the products are characterized by XRD and SEM. The result shows that ZnMn2O4 with a crystal size of about 50 nm is prepared under the conditions of T = 200°C, pH = 7, reaction time t = 3 days, and n(Zn: Mn) = 0.966:2, which have the advantages of good crystallinity and high purity. The nanocrystallization and spheroid-like structure of ZnMn2O4 determine that the battery assembled with ZnMn2O4 has a high initial discharge capacity, and the initial discharge specific capacity reaches 902.5 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1. This study shows that the nano ZnMn2O4 synthesized by the hydrothermal method is a promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries.