Metal-organic framework-derived mesoporous octahedral copper oxide/titania composites for high-performance...

A mesoporous octahedral copper oxide@titania (CuO/TiO₂) composites with core-shelled structure have been successfully fabricated via a facile and cost-effective approach, which involves two main steps: the creation of homogeneous TiO₂ shell onto the octahedral Cu-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) template and thermal decomposition of the template at controlled temperature in the air. The design of combining CuO with the TiO₂ layer within a porous octahedra structure is beneficial to integrate the advantages of different components and address the severe volume change associated with pulverization issue that exists in most metal oxides-based electrodes. When assembled as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the as-fabricated mesoporous CuO/TiO₂ octahedra can achieve outstanding electrochemical performance in terms of a high reversible capacity (692 mAh g^-1 at 100 mA g^-1 for over 200 cycles) and exceptional rate capability (441 and 387 mA h g^-1 at 1600 and 3200 mA g^-1, respectively).