Stability Enhancement of Pbo-Based Anodes through Facile Encapsulation in Carbon Nanofibers for Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Lead (II) Oxide (PbO)-embedded Carbon Nanofiber (CNF) anodes for lithium-ion batteries were prepared via the electrospinning method. While lead-based materials have several advantages over conventional graphite, including higher theoretical capacity and low cost, deleterious performance loss due to degradation caused by volume expansion remains as its main limitation. The use of carbon as an additive has been shown to stabilize the cycling performance and utilizing carbon nanostructures, namely nanofibers, can further substantially improve performance by accommodating volume change during lithiation/de-lithiation upon cycling as well as of batteries through capacity retention over several cycles. In this report, significant enhancement of battery performance in terms of specific capacity and cyclability is made using the prepared PbO/CNF anodes. The PbO particles were effectively embedded into the CNF, which significantly suppressed mechanical degradation of the electrode due to volume expansion and retained the PbO particles over numerous cycles and at high current. The PbO/CNF anode exhibits a high specific capacity of 375 mAh g-1 at a current of 200 mA g-1 (corresponding to ~1.2C) over 250 cycles compared 245 mAh g-1 for CNF, high current capability, and markedly improved stability, indicating its potential as an alternative to conventional graphite anodes.