CoFe2O4 nanoparticles derived from ZIF-67@Fe for lithium-ion batteries with stable cycling

The MOFs materials exist potential application prospects in the energy storage field for their high specific surface area and porosity. However, the MOFs materials also suffer from poor conductivity during the charging and discharging processes. Compared with MOFs, MOFs-derived metal oxides not only inherit the porosity of the MOFs, but also present high conductivity owing to the derived carbon. Herein, an effective approach for encapsulating CoFe2O4 into the derived carbon, which not only increases their conductivity but also restrains the volume expansion, and had excellent reaction kinetics. In this work, CoFe2O4 nanoparticles have been synthesized by one-step annealed process. The electrode is used as the anode for LIBs and found to have long-term stability of 491 mAh g−1 at a current density of 1.0 A g−1 even after 500 cycles. The CoFe2O4 electrode exhibits appreciable electrochemical performance, including 783 and 482 mAh g−1 at the current densities of 0.1 and 2.0 A g−1, respectively. Such excellent electrochemical properties are ascribed to the porous structure of MOFs, which effectively promotes ion/charge transmission. This will guide material design and optimization of battery communities and electrochemical energy storage applications.