Facile Synthesis of Crumpled Graphene Oxide and Its Outstanding Electrochemical Performance as an Anode in Lithium Ion Batteries

Abstract

We demonstrate a facile synthesis method to obtain crumpled graphene oxide (CGO) and an outstanding electrochemical performance of a CGO electrode as an anode. CGO was obtained by spray atomization. The crumpled surface structure of the CGO was confirmed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy and compared to that of graphene oxide (GO). CGO was applied as an anode material in lithium ion batteries to investigate its electrochemical characteristics. A GO anode exhibited a maximum discharge capacity of 180.7 mA h g(-1) under 200 mA g(-1) current density. Moreover, the discharge capacity of the CGO was 1.4 times higher than that of the GO at 1000 mA g(-1) current density. To the best of our knowledge, the CGO prepared in our study demonstrates the highest discharge capacity reported in the literature thus far for a bare CGO anode in a lithium ion half-cell battery. To further improve the conductivity, the CGO was reduced to reduced crumpled graphene oxide (rCGO) by thermal reduction. The maximum discharge capacity of a rCGO anode was 234.4 mA h g(-1) at 200 mA g(-1) current density. Compared with the CGO, the high specific surface area and numerous mesopores contributed to the improvement of the electrochemical properties. [GRAPHICS] .