Facile One-Pot Synthesis of Hollow Cu<sub>2</sub>O Spheres with Porous Shells as High-Performance Anode Materials for Lithium Ion Batteries

Hollow Cu2O spheres with highly porous shells were synthesized via a facile one-pot solution route at low temperature. The resultant Cu2O spheres were characterized by means of XRD, SEM, TEM and BET techniques. The results show that the typical diameters of the prepared Cu2O hollow spheres are 100-300 nm. Each Cu2O sphere is constructed of small nanoparticles. Electrochemical tests reveal that the hollow Cu2O spheres have very high and stable lithium ion (Li +) storage capacities of 412.5 mAh g-1 at 0.5C after 100 cycles. The superior Li storage performance of the Cu2O spheres is due to their highly porous nanostructure and fine spherical morphology. The prepared Cu2O spheres show great promise for use as high performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Keywords: Anode materials, Cu2O, hollow spheres, Lithium ion batteries, porous shells, solution route.