Porous spheres assembled from polythiophene (PTh)-coated ultrathin MnO2 nanosheets with enhanced lithium storage capabilities

• Main Authors: Xiao, Wei, Chen, Jun Song, Lu, Qing, Lou, David Xiong Wen
• Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Medicine::Biomedical engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/95704; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/8310
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this work, we propose a strategy to enhance the lithium storage capabilities of metal oxide based anodes for lithium-ion batteries through nanopainting with a thin layer of conducting polymer. To demonstrate the concept, we have developed a facile, one-step aqueous/organic interfacial synthesis to prepare polythiophene (PTh)-coated ultrathin MnO2 nanosheets (≈5 nm) with a uniform mesoporous hierarchical structure. When evaluated for lithium storage capability, the MnO2/PTh nanocomposite exhibits enhanced capacity retention upon high-rate charge/discharge cycling.