Preparation of PAN-based carbon fiber@MnO2 composite as an anode material for structural lithium-ion batteries

Carbon fiber@MnO2 composite (CF@MnO2) has been successfully synthesized based on the redox mechanism, and the morphological and electrochemical features are also studied. As a promising anode material for structural lithium-ion batteries (SLIBs), CF@MnO2 composite presents a coulombic efficiency of over 99% and good cyclic ability. It performs a high reversible capacity of 648mAhg(-1) after 150 cycles at a current density of 100mAg(-1), approximately 2.5 times as high as the pure CF (similar to 260mAhg(-1)). Moreover, the images of attained composite after the cycle show the fibrous structure do not change much, which verifies it retains good cycle stability. The superior electrochemical performance of the CF@MnO2 composite can be attributed to the unique hierarchy architecture and the synergistic effect between MnO2 and CF, which can effectively alleviate the volume expansion of MnO2 during the lithium insertion/extraction.