Enhanced anode performance of flower-like NiO/RGO nanocomposites for lithium-ion batteries

Flower-like nickel oxide/reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites (NiO/RGO) are synthesized via a facile and versatile hydrothermal strategy for lithium ion battery application. The flower-like NiO with the petal thickness of 50-80 nm is wrapped homogeneously by RGO sheets. More importantly, the NiO/RGO nanocomposites exhibit a superior reversible lithium storage capacity of 702.3 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g(-1), accounting for a retention by 77.0% in comparison to that of the 2th cycle, which is higher than that of pristine NiO. The performance improvement can be ascribed to the addition of RGO, which can enhance the electrical conductivity of NiO as well as mitigate the aggregation and volume change of NiO during charge-discharge processes. The designed NiO/RGO nanocomposite may have talent application as anode material of lithium ion batteries.