Feasible Defect Engineering by Employing Metal Organic Framework Templates into One-Dimensional Metal Oxides for Battery Applications

Facile synthesis of rationally designed nanostructured electrode materials with high reversible capacity is highly critical to meet ever-increasing demands for lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we employed defect engineering by incorporating metal organic framework (MOF) templates into one-dimensional nanostructures by simple electrospinning and subsequent calcination. The introduction of Co-based zeolite imidazole frameworks (ZIF-67) resulted in abundant oxygen vacancies, which induce not only more active sites for Li storage but also enhanced electrical conductivity. Moreover, abundant mesoporous sites are formed by the decomposition of ZIF-67, which are present both inside and outside the resultant SnO2–Co3O4 nanofibers (NFs). Attributed to the creation of vacancy sites along with the synergistic effects of SnO2 and Co3O4, SnO2–Co3O4 NFs exhibit an excellent reversible capacity for 300 cycles (1287 mA h g–1 at a current density of 500 mA g–1) along with superior rate capabilities and improved initial Coulombic efficiency compared with pristine SnO2 NFs. This is an early report on utilizing MOF structures as the defect formation platform into one-dimensional nanostructures, which is expected to result in superior electrochemical performances required for advanced electrodes.