Synthesis of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) from Zinc Based-Fertilizer as Potential and Low-Cost Anode Material for Lithium Ion Batteries

Zinc based anode material is considered promising for lithium ion batteries due to its availability, low cost and nontoxic properties. In this research, low cost zinc oxide (ZnO) was synthesized via fast precipitation of zinc based fertilizer followed by sintering process. Sodium hydroxide, oxalic acid and ammonium bicarbonate were used as precipitant to obtain hydroxide, oxalate and carbonate precipitate, respectively. All of the precipitates have good crystalline properties based on the XRD analysis. High crystalline wurzite structure of ZnO powders were successfully obtained by high temperature sintering of Zn precursor precipitate while ZnO/Graphite composites were successfully fabricated by solid-state method. Electrochemical properties of the ZnO/graphite composites were measured by charge-discharge analysis of cells with ZnO/graphite as the anode material and LiFePO4 as the cathode material. ZnO derived from oxalate precipitation has the highest specific discharge capacity of 88 mAh/g. In conclusion, ZnO from zinc based fertilizer is a promising low cost and high performance anode materials for lithium ion batteries