Approaching high-performance lithium storage materials of CoNiO₂ microspheres wrapped coal tar pitch-derived porous...

Ternary transition metal oxides (TMOs) are deemed as promising anode materials of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) owing to their large theoretical capacity and rich redox reaction. Nevertheless, the inherent semiconductor characteristic and enormous volume variation of TMOs during cycling bring about sluggish reaction kinetics, fast capacity fading, and poor rate capability. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) porous CoNiO₂@CTP architectures, i.e., CoNiO₂ microspheres combined with coal tar pitch-derived porous carbon, were designed and synthesized through a one-step hydrothermal method followed by a heat treatment process for the first time. The microsphere morphology increases the contact area between the anode and electrolyte, shortens the transport distance of Li⁺ ions, and reduces the agglomeration. The existence of the CTP layer provides rich charge transmission paths, improves the electronic conductivity of CoNiO₂ and provides abundant active sites for Li⁺ storage. Owing to the synergistic effect of porous carbon and microsphere morphology of CoNiO₂, the CoNiO₂@CTP (10.0 wt%) anode shows remarkable electrochemical performance with a high charge capacity (1437.5 mA h g^-1 at 500 mA g^-1), good rate performance (839.76 mA h g^-1 even at 1 A g^-1), and remarkable cycle durability (741.4 mA h g^-1 after 1000 cycles at 1 A g^-1), which is significantly better than pristine CoNiO₂. This study not only provides a simple strategy for high-value utilization of CTP but also offers cost-effective CoNiO₂@CTP architectures for high-performance LIBs.