Facile route to biomass-derived 1D carbon fiber supported high-performance MnO-based nanocomposite anode material

Abstract The combination of carbon fiber and MnO is considered as a promising strategy to enhance the electrochemical performance of MnO. Herein, the carbon fiber/MnO/C composite material was fabricated using cotton with pyrrole as the carbon source through two-step pyrolysis with KOH as the activator. The irregular shaped MnO particles with a carbon coating of about 1 nm thickness were embedded on the surface of the carbon fiber. Benefiting from this unique structure, the composite material demonstrated remarkable electrochemical performance. It retained 35.3% of the initial discharge capacity (1239 mA·h·g−1) at 0.1 A g−1. Under the stepwise increase of the current densities from 0.1 to 3 A g−1, a superior rate capability was obtained compared to that for MnO/C (30.2%) and MnO (26.4%). Moreover, the material manifested an outstanding long-term tolerance over 200 cycles. This excellent electrochemical performance is on account of the one-dimensional carbon fiber and the surrounding carbon coating, which not only enhances the electronic connectivity and conductivity but also facilitates the transportation of lithium ions as well as preventing the agglomeration of MnO nanoparticles during the electrochemical cycle. This work introduces a facile scalable approach of utilizing sustainable biomass materials to make electrodes for high-power lithium-ion batteries.