Nanostructured Co(ii)-based MOFs as promising anodes for advanced lithium storageElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6nj02568d

A novel kind of Co-based metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are firstly prepared by coordination assembly of Co( ii ) and 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid (H 3 BTC) through a hydrothermal route (referred to as Co-BTC MOF). Such Co-BTC MOF have a zigzag vermicular-like shape with a length of 126 nm and a width of 55 nm. Co-BTC MOFs without calcination treatment are applied as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and show superior electrochemical performance, including high lithium storage capacity (1739 mA h g −1 in the first discharge process at a current density of 100 mA g −1 ), excellent coulombic efficiency (above 99% in the 199th cycle) and cycling performance (>750 mA h g −1 over 200 cycles) in the potential range of 0.01-3.0 V vs. Li/Li + . Such excellent electrochemical performance may be derived from the conjugated carboxylate moiety and the linker structure. More importantly, the facile approach may also be extended to other metal-based MOFs and the intriguing results show that nano-sized MOFs will be regarded as futuristic anode materials for advanced lithium storage. A novel kind of Co-containing metal-organic frameworks (Co-BTC MOFs) are firstly developed as anodes for LIBs with excellent electrochemical performance.