Cobalt-phthalocyanine-derived ultrafine Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles as high-performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries

Abstract In this work, we present a simple, general, effective yet mass-production strategy to prepare transition-metal oxides (TMOs) nanoparticles using the metal-phthalocyanine as both the precursor and the starting self-sacrificial template. As the central metals of metal-phthalocyanine are easily tunable, various TMOs nanoparticles including Co 3 O 4 , Fe 2 O 3 , and CuO have been successfully prepared by deriving from the corresponding metal-phthalocyanine. As a proof-of-concept demonstration of the application of such nanostructured TMOs, Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles were evaluated as anode materials for LIBs, which show high initial capacity (1132.9 mAh g −1 at 0.05 A g −1 ), improved cycling stability (585.6 mAh g −1 after 200 cycles at 0.05 A g −1 ), and good rate capability (238.1 mAh g −1 at 2 A g −1 ) due to the unique properties of the ultrafine Co 3 O 4 nanoparticles. This present strategy might open new avenues for the design of a series of transition metal oxides using organometallic compounds for a range of applications.