Urchin like inverse spinel manganese doped NiCoO microspheres as high performances anode for lithium-ion batteries.

The ternary transition metal oxides are promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, their practical applications are greatly hindered by the poor conductivity and huge volume changes. To solve the issues, urchin-like inverse spinel manganese (Mn) doped NiCoO hierarchical microspheres were fabricated through a facile hydrothermal approach and subsequent annealing treatment. The as-obtained Mn-doped NiCoO hold microsphere and sharp fiber-shaped needle multilevel nanoscale architecture, which effectively shortened Li ions (Li) transmission path and improved the conductivity. In addition, the hierarchical urchin-like Mn-doped NiCoO synthesized at annealing temperature (600 °C) manifested a larger capacity and better cycling performance by controlling the crystallinities and morphologies. As expected, it displays an outstanding cycling performance with a reversible capacity of about 945 mAh g after 500 cycles at 2000 mA g. The kinetic analysis and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) testing also verifies the superior pseudocapacitance contribution and fast elevated ion migration of Li. Our work provides a promising design to develop suitable anode materials based on transition metal oxides for high-performance LIBs.