Preparation of advanced CuO nanowires/ functionalized graphene composite anode material for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

The copper oxide (CuO) nanowires/functionalized graphene (f-graphene) compositematerial was successfully composed by a one-pot synthesis method. The f-graphene synthesized through the Birch reduction chemistry method was modified with functional group "-(CH2)5COOH", and the CuO nanowires (NWs) were well dispersed in the f-graphene sheets. When used as anode materials in lithium-ion batteries, the composite exhibited good cyclic stability and decent specific capacity of 677mA·h.g-1 after 50 cycles. CuO NWs can enhance the lithium-ion storage of the composites while the f-graphene effectively resists the volume expansion of the CuO NWs during the galvanostatic charge/discharge cyclic process, and provide a conductive paths for charge transportation. The good electrochemical performance of the synthesized CuO/f-graphene composite suggests great potential of the composite materials for lithium-ion batteries anodes.