Superior lithium-storage properties derived from a high pseudocapacitance behavior for a peony-like holey Co3O4 anode

Transition metal oxides have shown extraordinary potential for lithium storage to date. Herein, a peony-like holey Co3O4 architecture has been elaborately designed and successfully prepared via a solvothermal process followed by annealing treatment. The as-obtained peony-like Co3O4 material showed an ultra-large reversible capacity of 1880 mA h g−1 at 500 mA g−1 after 800 cycles when it acted as the anode. More importantly, it also afforded a remarkable high-rate capability, i.e., an excellent capacity of 1141 mA h g−1 at a current density of 10 A g−1. Such an impressive performance could be ascribed to improved kinetics originating from ultrathin 2D nanosheets with ample pores and a high pseudocapacitive contribution. Therefore, the peony-like Co3O4 material was considered as a promising candidate for high-performance Li-ion battery anodes.