Facile synthesis of mesoporous Mn3O4 nanorods as a promising anode material for high performance Lithium-ion batteries

In this work, porous Mn3O4 nanorods have been fabricated through the decomposition of MnOOH nanorods under an inert gas. The sample shows a high BET surface area of 27.6 m(2) g(-1) and a narrow pore size distribution of 3.9 nm. Because of the excellent porous 'geometry and one-dimensional structure, the porous Mn3O4 nanorods display outstanding electrochemical performance, such as high specific capacity (901.5 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 500 mAg(-1)) long cycling stability (coulombic efficiency of 99.3% after 150 cycles) and high rate capability (387.5 mA h g(-1) at 2000 mA g(-1)). Very interestingly, the porous Mn3O4 nanorods are converted to Mn3O4 following electrochemical reaction, which does not occur with nonporous Mn3O4 nanorods. The possible reason may be ascribed to the improved kinetics of the porous structure.