Mesoporous materials can serve as well-performed electrode candidates for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Mesoporous manganese phosphonate (MnP) nanorods are composed of an interconnected network of pores that have high infiltration capacity for electrolyte and less tortuous transport pathways for lithium/electron charge carriers. The mesoporous architecture should also help alleviate stress from volume variation upon lithium intercalation/deintercalation cycles. We used MnP as an LIB anode and observed an initial reversible capacity of 420 mA h g-1 and a modest Coulombic efficiency of 68.7% at a relatively high current density of 144 mA g-1. The reversible capacity stabilizes at 253 mA h g-1 after 100 repetitive cycles, while most of the time, the Coulombic efficiency remains around 100%. The results show that, as a prospective LIB anode, the mesoporous MnP can achieve desirable capacity with decent durability and rate capability.
Keywords: electrodes; lithium ion batteries; manganese phosphonates; mesoporous materials; surfactants.