Binder free Cu2O/CuO/Cu/Carbon-polymer composite fibers derived from metal/organic hybrid materials through electrodeposition method as high performance anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Design of Cu2O/CuO nanocomposites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries has attracted extensive attention because of their potential applications in the energy field. Herein, in this work, the coordination polymers of Cu2+ and flexible chain-like α, ω-dicarboxylate (succinate and sebacate) are synthesized by a facile anodic electrochemical deposition method, in which succinic acid/sebacic acid is used as electrolyte and the copper foil is used as electrodes. The obtained Cu(α, ω-dicarboxylate) polymers grown on copper foil substrate are decomposed and oxidized to prepare a Cu2O/CuO/Cu/Carbon-polymer composite fibers, in which the nanoparticles of Cu2O/CuO/Cu are uniformly incorporated into a fibrous carbon-polymer, which can facilitate Li+ ion diffusion to active sites in the electrodes and alleviate the volume expansion during the charge and discharge process. As a result, the Cu2O/CuO/Cu/Carbon-polymer composite fibers can be used as novel binder free anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, which displays high capacity, excellent cycle stability and rate performance. The initial discharge capacity of composite fibers electrode derived from Cu (sebacate) polymers (Cu-C10) is as high as 508.9 mAh/g at the current densities of 50 mA·g−1. After 150 cycles, the capacity can still remain at 479.9 mAh/g with capacity retention rate of 94.3%. The preparation of electrodes by novel electrochemical deposition in this work would provide a new insight for preparing advanced binder free metal oxide/carbon-based anodes for LIBs with environmental friendliness and inexpensive.