Heterostructured CoO/MoB MBene composites for high performance lithium-ion batteries anode.

Transition metal oxide CoO has attracted extensive attention as a potential anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its impressive theoretical specific capacity. However, pristine CoO often suffers from structural collapse during cycling, resulting in reduced capacity. To address these challenges, we developed a method to grow octahedral CoO nanoparticles on hierarchical multilayer MoB MBene. The matched layer gradients and heterojunction formation between CoO and MoB MBene effectively accommodate the volume expansion of CoO. Following 200 cycles at 100 mA/g, the CoO/MoB MBene electrode achieves a capacity of 819.8 mAh/g, a significant 2.58-fold performance improvement over pristine CoO. Even at 1000 mA/g, the composite retains a capacity of 601.3 mAh/g after 600 cycles, while the pristine material retains only 142.4 mAh/g. This breakthrough suggests CoO/MoB MBene composite holds great promise in improving the performance of LIBs and may pave the way for the development of advanced materials.