Green Synthesis of a Reduced‐Graphene‐Oxide Wrapped Nickel Oxide Nano‐Composite as an Anode For High‐Performance Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Abstract Aeschynomene aspera (AA) plant, a sustainable, waste natural carbon source, is used towards green and scalable synthesis of carbon two‐dimensional materials by simply altering the heating temperature and its composites with nickel oxide (NiO) are fabricated as an anode for high‐performance lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). Interestingly, a wide range of carbon materials (amorphous carbon, graphene‐oxide (GO), and reduced‐graphene‐oxide(RGO)) can be synthesized from this carbon source that can be used in different applications. Among them, GO synthesized at 500 °C shows best lithium storage properties. While incase of composite the RGO‐NiO fabricated using heated AA plant, at 1000 °C shows excellent lithium storage properties. The RGO‐NiO composite exhibits reversible specific discharge capacity of 847 mAh g −1 at 100 mA g −1 and an excellent rate capability up to 1000 mA g −1 . In addition, ex‐situ XRD and XPS measurements reveal reversible nature of the conversion reaction occurring in the composite electrodes.