Volumetric buffering of manganese dioxide nanotubes by employing ‘as is’ graphene oxide: An approach towards stable metal oxide anode material in lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Abstract The compulsion of low-cost high-performance lithium-ion batteries in order to meet the global per capita usage of energy is continuously trending. In this work, we address an economical and facile synthesis strategy of graphene oxide/manganese dioxide nanotubes (GMN) hybrid material as an anode for lithium-ion batteries. By adopting a simple sonication technique graphene oxide (GO) ‘as is’ integrated on manganese dioxide nanotubes due to the electrostatic force of attraction between GO functional groups and MnO2 nanotubes. As a result, strong chemical bonding established by virtue of oxygen bridges such as Mn–O–C linkage due to the hydroxyl/epoxy groups pinning from GO onto the Mn atoms. This integration of graphene oxide is beneficial to reduce the volume expansion, charge transfer resistance and moreover in enhancing interfacial and structure stability during charge-discharge cycles. Consequently, GMN hybrid exhibit excellent lithium storage capacity (1290 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1), sound cyclic stability (316 mA h g−1 at 2 A g−1), preservation of nanotubes structure even up to 800 cycles, enhanced initial columbic efficiency from 46% (bare MnO2) to 68% (GMN), and approximately three times lower volume expansion of (62%) in contrast to bare MnO2 (190%). This study provides an insight to utilize GO directly to deal with the severe issue of volume expansion to boost the overall performance of metal oxide anode materials.