Hydrothermal synthesis of nano spheroid‐like ZnMn2O4 materials as high‐performance anodes for lithium‐ion batteries

Summary Spent zinc‐manganese batteries contain valuable elements, especially Zn and Mn, and recycling these metal elements can realize the sustainable development of resources. In this paper, a novel process of preparing ZnMn 2 O 4 as anode material for lithium‐ion batteries from the spent zinc‐manganese battery is present. Nano ZnMn 2 O 4 is synthesized by the low‐temperature hydrothermal method, and the formation mechanism is discussed. The structure, morphology, and composition of the products are characterized by XRD and SEM. The result shows that ZnMn 2 O 4 with a crystal size of about 50 nm is prepared under the conditions of T = 200°C, pH = 7, reaction time t = 3 days, and n(Zn: Mn) = 0.966:2, which have the advantages of good crystallinity and high purity. The nanocrystallization and spheroid‐like structure of ZnMn 2 O 4 determine that the battery assembled with ZnMn 2 O 4 has a high initial discharge capacity, and the initial discharge specific capacity reaches 902.5 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 . This study shows that the nano ZnMn 2 O 4 synthesized by the hydrothermal method is a promising anode material for lithium‐ion batteries.