MOF-templated thermolysis for porous CuO/Cu.sub.2O@CeO.sub.2 anode material of lithium-ion batteries with high rate performance

Novel porous CuO/Cu.sub.2O@CeO.sub.2 anode has been successfully synthesized from a Cu-based metal-organic framework (Cu-MOF) via a simple two-step pyrolysis method. The CeO.sub.2 protective layer greatly improves the electronic conductivity, can buffer the volume change and can provide pathways for electron transport and Li.sup.+ diffusion. The results demonstrate that the electrochemical performance of CuO/Cu.sub.2O anode can be significantly improved by the design. The CuO/Cu.sub.2O@CeO.sub.2 electrode delivers a large specific capacity of 473 mAh g.sup.-1 at 0.3 A g.sup.-1, and exhibits excellent rate capacity with 250 mAh g.sup.-1 at 2 A g.sup.-1 and good cyclic performance with a capacity of 592.3 mAh g.sup.-1 after 100 cycles at 0.2 A g.sup.-1.