One-step hydrothermal synthesis of coordination polymers with high specific capacity and superior lithium storage properties

Coordination polymers (CPs) are one of the options for next-generation anode materials for lithium-ion batteries due to their abundant pores and active sites. However, poor electrical conductivity and cycling stability limit their further applications. Here, we performed a hydrothermal synthesis of various CPs based on 1,3,5-Benzenetricarboxylic acid ligands and applied them to LIBs anodes. They have the same one-dimensional (1D) structure and monoclinic symmetry in the I2 space group. The 1D structure can shorten the transport path of lithium ions and facilitate the migration of lithium ions. In the electrochemical test, the cobalt ion doped monometallic CPs (BTC-Co) has obvious performance advantages compared with nickel ion and manganese ion doped monometallic CPs (BTC-Ni and BTC-Mn). Compared with the trimetallic CPs of the same structure (BTC-NCM), BTC-Co shows similar high stability and better lithium storage capacity than it. The discharge specific capacities of BTC-Co and BTC-NCM after 400 cycles at 100 ​mA ​g−1 are 1052.5 mAh g−1 and 676.1 mAh g−1, respectively. The excellent electrochemical performance of BTC-Co and BTC-NCM shows promising application prospect in the field of anode materials.