Urchin like inverse spinel manganese doped NiCo₂O₄ 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 NiCo₂O₄ hierarchical microspheres were fabricated through a facile hydrothermal approach and subsequent annealing treatment. The as-obtained Mn-doped NiCo₂O₄ 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 NiCo₂O₄ 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^-1 after 500 cycles at 2000 mA g^-1. 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.