Improved electrochemical properties of single crystalline NiO nanoflakes for lithium storage and oxygen electroreduction

A facile strategy has been developed to realize the controllable synthesis of single crystalline NiO nanoflakes. According to the SEM, TEM and BET analysis, it was found that the m-NiO nanoflakes have a hexagonal structure with an average pore diameter of 4.4 nm, and exhibit a high surface area of 113.4 m(2) g(-1) and a pore volume around 0.142 cm(3) g(-1). The m-NiO nanoflakes exhibit a significantly improved electrochemical performance as an anode of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) compared with bulk NiO based on cyclic voltammograms and galvanostatic measurement. Additionally, the m-NiO nanoflakes showed remarkable advanced activity for catalyzing oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) relative to the bulk NiO electrode and the bare electrode. Further, rotating disk electrodes demonstrated that the m-NiO nanoflakes, as the support of the Pt nanoparticles, shows significantly improved activity for ORRs.