Facile and ultrafast synthesis of Co3O4@copper foam with high-areal lithium storage capacity.

• Co 3 O 4 is deposited onto copper foam via a rapid solution combustion process. • The Co 3 O 4 loadings can be controlled by the immersion and combustion times. • The lithium storage capacity of Co 3 O 4 @CFs can reach 1.95 mAh/cm2. In this work, Co 3 O 4 layers can be constructed on copper foam (CF) in seconds via facile and efficient solution combustion processes, forming self-supporting Co 3 O 4 @CFs. By controlled immersion and calcination times, Co 3 O 4 @CF electrodes with different Co 3 O 4 loadings are prepared and recorded as CF-1, CF-2, and CF-3, respectively. As anodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), CF-1, CF-2, and CF-3 exhibit high-areal capacity of 0.87, 1.59, and 1.95 mAh/cm2 at 0.5 mA/cm2, respectively. The high capacity may be due to the high Co 3 O 4 loadings and the hybrid (diffusion and pseudocapacitive) lithium storage behavior of the porous Co 3 O 4 layer. This study provides an ultrafast solution combustion method for the construction of self-supporting anodes in LIBs, which can be further extended to prepare other self-supporting metal oxide-based electrodes for LIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]