Polypyrrole-derived nitrogen-doped carbon coated hierarchical MnO porous microspheres for highly reversible lithium storage

Abstract Manganese monoxide (MnO) has emerged as a promising anode material in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to its large lithiation capacity, low voltage hysteresis and environmental friendliness. In this work, we have developed the nitrogen-doped carbon coated MnO porous microspheres (MnO@NC), which consist of small nanocrystals with interparticle mesopores via a self-templated solvothermal synthesis and subsequent in-situ pyrolysis of polypyrrole precursors. By virtue of the conductive outer layer of nitrogen-doped carbon (NC) and the abundant inner mesopores, the hierarchical MnO@NC porous microspheres manifest the superior lithium storage properties as anode for LIBs. In detail, the optimized MnO@NC electrode delivers a high initial discharge capacity of 1037 mAh g−1 at 0.2 A g−1, remains the discharge capacity of 890 mAh g−1 at 1A g−1 after 500 cycles, indicates the outstanding rate capability with a specific capacity of 450 mAh g−1 at 5A g−1.