Facile-synthesized amorphous CoCO3 for high-capacity lithium-ion battery anode

Transition metal carbonates are high specific capacity and high initial coulombic efficiency anode materials of the lithium-ion batteries (LiBs). Herein, molecular dynamics simulation found the amorphous instead of the crystallized CoCO3 is more favorable for Li-ion storage. Guided by the dynamics simulations results, the amorphous CoCO3 was synthesized by a facile one-step precipitation method and then compounded with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) sheets. The as-synthesized CoCO3/RGO shows one of the best electrochemical performances compared with the recently reported CoCO3-based anodes. CoCO3/RGO delivered a reversible capacity of 881.4 mAh g(-1) at 50th cycle under the current density of 100 mA g(-1) and 1250.5, 898.7, 718.3 mAh g(-1) at 1st, 2nd, and 50th cycles under the current density of 200 mA g(-1). This work could provide a rational design and manufacture method of high-performance carbonate-based LiB anodes.