Facile synthesis of porous NiCo2O4 microflowers as high-performance anode materials for advanced lithium-ion batteries

Abstract Porous NiCo 2 O 4 microflowers having very high Brunner-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area (∼109.283 m 2 /g) are fabricated by a facile solvothermal method followed by calcinating the Co-Ni hydroxides precursor in air. The as-prepared porous NiCo 2 O 4 microflowers exhibit excellent cycling stability (952 mA h g −1 at a current density of 100 mA g −1 after 60 cycles and 720 mA h g −1 at a current density of 500 mA g −1 after 100 cycles). This outstanding electrochemical performance is attributed to the unique hierarchical structure and high porosity, which can provide enough space to buffer the volume expansion during the discharge and charge processes, increase the contact area between the electrode and electrolyte, and reduce the transport lengths of both lithium ions and electrons. The porous NiCo 2 O 4 microflowers show great potential in high-capacity anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries.