β-MnO /Metal-Organic Framework Derived Nanoporous ZnMn O Nanorods as Lithium-Ion Battery Anodes with Superior Lithium-Storage Performance.

Nanoporous ZnMn O nanorods have been successfully synthesized by calcining β-MnO /ZIF-8 precursors (ZIF-8 is a type of metal-organic framework). If measured as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the ZnMn O nanorods exhibit an initial discharge capacity of 1792 mA h g at 200 mA g , and an excellent reversible capacity of 1399.8 mA h g after 150 cycles (78.1 % retention of the initial discharge capacity). Even at 1000 mA g , the reversible capacity is still as high as 998.7 mA h g after 300 cycles. The remarkable lithium-storage performance is attributed to the one-dimensional nanoporous structure. The nanoporous architecture not only allows more lithium ions to be stored, which provides additional interfacial lithium-storage capacity, but also buffers the volume changes, to a certain degree, during the Li insertion/extraction process. The results demonstrate that nanoporous ZnMn O nanorods with superior lithium-storage performance have the potential to be candidates for commercial anode materials in lithium-ion batteries.