Highly Crystalized Co2Mo3O8 Hexagonal Nanoplates Interconnected by Coal-Derived Carbon via the Molten-Salt-Assisted Method for Competitive Li-Ion Battery Anodes.

Highly crystalized Co2Mo3O8 hexagonal nanoplates interconnected by coal-derived carbon have been successfully fabricated by the molten-salt-assisted method. The formation process of the nanostructural hybrids via molten salts is proposed. The eutectic salts with low melting points act as ionic liquid solvents and "molecular templates" at high temperature, making cobalt and molybdenum salts react in the form of bare ions to get the regular Co2Mo3O8 hexagonal nanoplates interconnected by conductive carbon. In addition, the crystallinity of Co2Mo3O8 hexagonal nanoplates is increased with the help of molten salts. The effects of temperature on morphology and electrochemical performance of the composites were studied. Thanks to the unique structure design, the optimal composite obtained by this simple low-cost strategy exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance as anodes for lithium-ion batteries, which reveals a high reversible capacity of 1075 mA h g-1 at 200 mA g-1 and 596 mA h g-1 at 1000 mA g-1 after 100 cycles. More importantly, the sample shows good rate capability with a high capacity of 533 mA h g-1 at a high current density of 4000 mA g-1. The molten-salt-assisted method is also applicable to design and synthesize other metal oxide-based Li-ion battery anodes.