The influence of different inert gas atmospheres to hierarchical structures and energy storage performances of MnO/C nanowires as anode of lithium-ion batteries

With porous structure, carbon based composite anode materials can not only improve electronic connectivity, but also buffer the volume expansion during the lithiation/delithiation process. In this work, two porous MnO/C composite nanowires were synthesized by calcining Mn-based coordination polymer nanowires precursor in nitrogen and argon atmospheres. The sample calcined in argon displayed significant increase in surface area by 34% than that in nitrogen. Besides, at the current density of 0.1 Ag−1, the first charge and discharge capacity improved by 59.7% and 73.6%, respectively, Foremost, even at a higher current density, the sample synthesized in argon exhibited better cycle stability (93.1%) than that in nitrogen (85.3%) after 60 cycles, the reversible capacity increased by 1.2 times.