Free standing nanostructures for anode of Li-ion rechargeable batteries

The free standing nanorods of aluminum and cobalt oxides were grown on electrodes and tested as the anodes directly in the half-cell of Li-ion battery. The average diameter and length of the nanorods are 80 nm and 200 nm, respectively. The aligned nanorods demonstrated high initial capacity from 1200-1400 mAh/g at rate of 0.5C. A gradual decrease of the initial capacity was observed. The preliminary characterization shows that the changes of the crystalline structure and morphology during cycling may be responsible for the capacity decay.