Mechanical and chemical degradations of high-capacity anodes, resulting from lithiation-induced stress accumulation, volume expansion and pulverization, and unstable solid–electrolyte interface formation, represent major mechanisms of capacity fading, limiting the lifetime of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. Here we report that the mechanical degradation on cycling can be deliberately controlled to finely tune mesoporous structure of the metal oxide sphere and optimize stable solid–electrolyte interface by high-rate lithiation-induced reactivation. The reactivated Co₃O₄ hollow sphere exhibits a reversible capacity above its theoretical value (924 mAh g⁻¹ at 1.12 C), enhanced rate performance and a cycling stability without capacity fading after 7,000 cycles at a high rate of 5.62 C. In contrast to the conventional approach of mitigating mechanical degradation and capacity fading of anodes using nanostructured materials, high-rate lithiation-induced reactivation offers a new perspective in designing high-performance electrodes for long-lived lithium-ion batteries.

A nitrogen-doped graphene/sulfur composite was further modified with atomic layers of TiO ₂ and used as the cathode of lithium–sulfur batteries, exhibiting superior cycling stability, good rate capability and high coulombic efficiency.

We report a simple, efficient and versatile method for assembling metal oxide nanomaterial–graphene core–shell structures. An ultraviolet photodetector fabricated from the ZnO nanoparticle–graphene core–shell structures showed high responsivity and fast transient response, which are attributed to the improved carrier transport efficiency arising from graphene encapsulation.