Green and Facile Fabrication of Hollow Porous MnO/C Microspheres from Microalgaes for Lithium-Ion Batteries

TLDR: Inspired by the natural microalgae with its special features, this work develops a green and facile biotemplating method to fabricate monodisperse MnO/C microspheres for lithium-ion batteries, which will extend the scope of biOTemplating synthesis for exploring other functional materials in various structure-dependent applications such as catalysis, gas sensing, and energy storage.

Abstract: Hollow porous micro/nanostructures with high surface area and shell permeability have attracted tremendous attention. Particularly, the synthesis and structural tailoring of diverse hollow porous materials is regarded as a crucial step toward the realization of high-performance electrode materials, which has several advantages including a large contact area with electrolyte, a superior structural stability, and a short transport path for Li+ ions. Meanwhile, owing to the inexpensive, abundant, environmentally benign, and renewable biological resources provided by nature, great efforts have been devoted to understand and practice the biotemplating technology, which has been considered as an effective strategy to achieve morphology-controllable materials with structural specialty, complexity, and related unique properties. Herein, we are inspired by the natural microalgae with its special features (easy availability, biological activity, and carbon sources) to develop a green and facile biotemplating method...