An environmentally friendly sepiolite/Cu2O/Cu ternary composite as anode material for Li-ion batteries

Cu2O/Cu composite has been widely used as a photocatalyst for hydrogen production. However, little attention has been paid to the electrochemical performance of Cu2O/Cu composite in Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Natural clay sepiolite is an impressive inorganic template for the nanocrystallization of functional materials. Besides, the sepiolite shows high wettability towards liquid electrolytes and its pseudocapacitive behavior can increase the specific discharge capacity of the electrodes. Thus, in this paper, natural clay sepiolite was employed to prepare a nanosized sepiolite/Cu2O/Cu ternary composite anode for LIBs. The as-prepared environmentally friendly sepiolite/Cu2O/Cu anode shows excellent electrochemical performance compared with Cu2O and sepiolite. The ternary composite can deliver a specific discharge capacity around 650 mAhg(-1) and 295 mAhg(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1) and 1.0 A g(-1), respectively.

Automated summary

In this study, a nanosized sepiolite/Cu2O/Cu ternary composite anode was successfully prepared using natural clay sepiolite as a template, showing excellent electrochemical performance.