Rational Design of Bimetallic Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework‐Derived C, N Dual‐Doped ZnO/Co for Boosting Lithium Storage

Abstract Lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) are the preeminent technology for energy storage, having the highest energy density for large‐scale commercial applications. Owing to üast assiduous studies, a good number of reported advanced anode materials possess excellent electrochemical properties. In this work, a porous C, N dual‐doped ZnO/Co composite is successfully prepared by metal–organic frameworks (MOF)‐template mediated synthesis method utilizing a self‐sacrificing template of bimetallic zeolitic imidazolate framework (denoted as ZnCo‐ZIF) and is tested as a lithium‐ion battery anode material. Due to the advantageous structural and morphological features, such as well‐defined open framework clusters with polyhedron crystal structure, conductive porous carbon network and synergistic effects, the as‐prepared C, N dual‐doped ZnO/Co electrode delivers a specific capacity of 800 mAh g ‐1 at 0.2 A g ‐1 for 500 cycles together with unprecedented cycling ability of 590 mAh g ‐1 at 1 A g ‐1 over 1000 cycles. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate the relationship between the electronic structure and electrochemical activity of ZnO/Co anode material. These results show that the synthesized C, N dual‐doped ZnO/Co is a promising high‐performance anode material for LIBs.