CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles anchored on bowl-like carbon backbone for enhanced reversible lithium storage

A bowl-like carbon backbone supported CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles (CoFe₂O₄ NPs@C) composite was successfully synthesized and used as a high performance anode in lithium batteries. The as-prepared hierarchical structure takes full use of favorable characteristics of individual components down to the nano-sized building block, i.e., high specific capacities of CoFe₂O₄ NPs and volume change buffering of the bowl-like carbon during charge/discharge cycles. Moreover, the bowl-like carbon architecture sufficiently realizes the space-efficient packing of electrode materials to augment the energy density of batteries. Owing to the efficient combination of individual merits, the CoFe₂O₄ NPs@C composite presents superior lithium storage properties. Even after 200 cycles at current density of 400 mA h g^-1, the as-prepared material exhibits a discharge capacity of 1111.5 mA h g^-1.