Unique walnut-shaped porous MnO2/C nanospheres with enhanced reaction kinetics for lithium storage with high capacity and superior rate capability

This work is realized in the frame of a program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team (IRT_15R52) of Chinese Ministry of Education. B. L. Su acknowledges the Chinese Central Government for an “Expert of the State” position in the Program of the “Thousand Talents” and a Life Membership at the Clare Hall, Cambridge and the financial support of the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. Y. Li acknowledges Hubei Provincial Department of Education for the “Chutian Scholar” program. T. Hasan acknowledges funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering (Graphlex) and an Impact Acceleration Award (GRASS). This work is also financially supported by the National Science Foundation for Young Scholars of China (No. 21301133 and 51302204), International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2015DFE52870) and and Self-determined and Innovative Research Funds of the SKLWUT (2015‐ZD‐7). The authors also would like to thank Dr. Bin-Jie Wang from Shanghai Nanoport (FEI, Shanghai) for TEM analysis, and thank Hang Ping from Wuhan University of Technology for the TGA/DSC tests.