Synthesis of N-doped straw sheaf–like porous MnO@C composite as anode of advanced lithium-/sodium-ion batteries

Abstract

N-doped straw sheaf–like porous MnO@C composite is synthesized through a L-histidine-assisted hydrothermal method with consequent annealing in Ar. The straw sheaf–like porous structure is assembled by MnO nanoparticles with a diameter of ~ 15 nm and be uniformly wrapped in amorphous N-doped carbon matrix. MnO@C-N displays attractive electrochemical properties when used as anode of lithium-/sodium-ion batteries. A high reversible capacity of 832.5 mA h g−1 could be obtained at 100 mA g−1 in LIBs and 250 mA h g−1 at 50 mA g−1 with outstanding cycling stability in SIBs. The study also compared MnO@C-N with commercial MnO particles in LIBs and shows that MnO@C-N anode has excellent cycling performance with 614.0 mA h g−1 retained after 200 cycles. However, commercial MnO displays only 413.5 mA h g−1 after 132 cycles. The present synthesis strategy opens the possibility of fabricating MnO@C-N nanocomposites for high-performance batteries.