One-step synthesis of recoverable CuCo2S4 anode material for high-performance Li-ion batteries

Abstract

A facile one-step hydrothermal method has been adopted to directly synthesize the CuCo2S4 material on the surface of Ni foam. Due to the relatively large specific surface area and wide pore size distribution, the CuCo2S4 material not only effectively increases the reactive area, but also accommodates more side reaction products to avoid the difficulty of mass transfer. When evaluated as anode for Li-ion batteries, the CuCo2S4 material exhibits excellent electrochemical performance including high discharge capacity, outstanding cyclic stability and good rate performance. At the current density of 200 mA·g−1, the CuCo2S4 material shows an extremely high initial discharge capacity of 2510 mAh·g−1, and the cycle numbers of the material even reach 83 times when the discharge capacity is reduced to 500 mAh·g−1. Furthermore, the discharge capacity can reach 269 mAh·g−1 at a current of 2000 mA·g−1. More importantly, when the current density comes back to 200 mA·g−1, the discharge capacity could be recovered to 1436 mAh·g−1, suggesting an excellent capacity recovery characteristics.