Self-assembled mesoporous CoO nanodisks as a long-life anode material for lithium-ion batteries

Even after a decade of intensive efforts, achieving conversion-type anode materials with superior stability via a simple process still remains a great challenge. This work describes a facile solution process at room temperature combined with subsequent annealing to prepare unprecedented self-assembled mesoporous CoO nanodisks on a large scale. The hierarchically nanostructured CoO assemblies consist of orderly self-stacked mesoporous nanodisks of less than 10 nm in thickness and 3–5 μm in diameter. Each CoO nanodisk is built up by extremely fine primary nanoparticles (∼5 nm). When evaluated as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the synergistic effects of the unique nanoarchitectures endow the self-assembled CoO nanodisks with superior electrochemical performances, including a high reversible lithium storage capacity (1118.6 mA h g⁻¹ after 50 discharge–charge cycles at 200 mA g⁻¹) and excellent cycling performance (633.5 mA h g⁻¹ after 400 discharge–charge cycles at 800 mA g⁻¹).