Ultrafast green microwave-assisted synthesis of high-entropy oxide nanoparticles for Li-ion battery applications

In this study, a novel ultrafast facile green microwave-assisted method was developed for the synthesis of high entropy oxide (HEO) (Mg, Cu, Ni, Co, Zn)O nanoparticles for the first time. The results indicated that all the five metallic elements were uniformly distributed in the single-phase rocksalt structure of the HEO nanoparticles. The particle-size distribution was within the range of 20-70 nm, with the average size of 44 nm. When used as anode materials for Li-ion batteries, the HEO nanoparticles exhibited remarkable lithium storage properties with the impressive stability as was demonstrated during 1000 cycles at 1 A/g. The exceptional advantages of the proposed method in this work, including ultrafast speed (few minutes), low temperature, nanoscale and high-purity products, and low cost, make it an excellent synthesis technique for application in newly developed high-entropy ceramics, particularly for Li-ion batteries.

Automated summary

A novel ultrafast green microwave-assisted method was developed for synthesizing high entropy oxide nanoparticles, showing impressive performance. The method offers advantages such as low cost, high-purity products, making it suitable for synthesis of new high-entropy ceramics, especially in the field of Li-ion batteries.