A preliminary investigation upon the electrochemical behavior of CoO and NiO anodes — comparative study

Among the variety of alternate anode materials being studied, the research on the exploration of 3d-metal oxide anodes gains paramount importance in the recent time, as it is bestowed with an easy preparation method and a less complicated decomposition mechanism. Towards this direction, an attempt to synthesize the compound CoO and to investigate the electrochemical behavior of the same both individually and in comparison with NiO compounds was made with a view to understand the extent to which the chosen candidates, viz., CoO and NiO can be exploited as high capacity anodes. Between the two oxides, CoO exhibited a specific capacity of at least 550 mAh/g, against NiO with an average capacity of ∼330 mAh/g. Also, the magnitude of irreversible capacity loss and the extent of capacity fade upon cycling corresponding to CoO anode were found to be lesser than NiO anodes. The enhanced specific capacity values and the better cycleability properties of CoO anodes are believed to be due to the inherent electrochemical characteristics of the compound. The type and the nature of SEI formed over the electrode surface and the formation of possible progressive agglomeration of the products of decomposition are expected to be the factors responsible for the difference in the electrochemical behavior of CoO and NiO anodes. In short, electrochemical characterization of the individual oxides are studied and probable reasons for the observed difference in the charge-discharge behavior of CoO and NiO anodes are discussed in this communication.