Alkyldimethylbetaine-Assisted Development of Hollow Urchinlike CuO Microspheres and Application for High-Performance Battery Anodes.

A new approach to develop novel hollow urchinlike copper oxide (CuO) microspheres by the hydrothermal method was reported, and zwitterionic alkyldimethylbetaine (BS) surfactants were employed as templates in the classic copper-ammonia complex systems. Effects of numerous environmental factors on the morphology of CuO particles were studied systematically, in which the concentration and structure of BS predominantly affected the developed CuO materials. It was noticed that hollow urchinlike CuO microspheres were generally formed in the presence of BS regardless of the reaction temperature and time and the source of copper ions. Generally speaking, high concentrations of BS and BS with longer chain length strongly favored the formation of hollow urchinlike CuO microspheres. The microstructures of synthesized CuO particles were studied in detail, and the corresponding formation mechanism of hollow urchinlike CuO microspheres was also proposed based on the selective adsorption of BS on the particular crystal facets of CuO crystals. Moreover, hollow urchinlike CuO microspheres showed excellent performance in the lithium-ion batteries as anode materials with a reversible capability of 511 mA h·g at 0.1 C after 40 charge-discharge cycles, which was one of the best values of CuO materials reported in this field.