An Efficient and Reversible Battery Anode Electrode Derived from a Lead-Based Metal-Organic Framework

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline materials with tailorable structural versatility that were recently considered as one of the most promising alternative anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Herein, we have synthesized lead-based MOFs (Pb-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate, Pb-BTC), which had a high efficiency and reversibe lithium storage for anode material in lithium-ion batteries. The Pb-BTC based battery delivers highly reversible lithium storage capacities of 625 and 450 mA h g-1 at current densities of 0.1 and 0.5 A g-1, respectively, and can maintain its performance up to 150 charging/discharging cycles. The ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies on the electrode materials at different charging/discharging states and cyclic intervals reveal that the Li+ insertion, conversion, and alloying mechanism play central roles on improving the lithium storage capability. The DFT simulation reveals that the Pb sites in MOFs absorb Li atoms efficiently that support the high storage capacity. The electrochemical performance of Pb-BTC in our work is among the best compared with other reported MOF anode electrodes.