Thermal gravity (TG) analysis of M1 indicates that a major weight loss (39.8%) occur at about 300 ℃, which refers to the decomposition of cobalt oxalate (Fig. S6 in Supporting information). The product annealed at 250 ℃ for 2 h (defined as M1-250) is indexable as a Co
3O
4/CoC
2O
4 composite (
Figs. 3a and
b). For comparison, the other three thermal treatment temperatures of M1 are selected at 200 ℃ (M1-200), 300 ℃ (M1-300) and 320 ℃ (M1-320), respectively. The color of the samples changes from flesh-colored (M1), purple (M1-200) to black (M1-250, M1-300 and M1-320) (Fig. S7 in Supporting information). Among them, M1-200 (Figs. S8a1–a2 in Supporting information), M1-250 (Figs. S8b1–b2 in Supporting information) as well as M1-300 (Figs. S8c1–c2 in Supporting information) can retain the sheet-like morphology, while the morphology of M1-320 (Figs. S8d1 and d2 in Supporting information) break into small pieces. It can be found that with the increase of temperature, the surface of the sample change from smooth to porous, and more and more Co
3O
4 nanoparticles appear. The HRTEM image (
Fig. 3c) and corresponding FFT pattern (
Fig. 3d) of M1-250 verify the crystalline property of M1-250 with the lattice distance of 2.4 and 2.8 Å, match well with to the (311) and (220) planes of Co
3O
4, respectively. Energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy analysis validates the existence of Co, C and O in the M1-250 with a Co/O atomic ratio around 0.40 (Fig. S9 in Supporting information). Significantly, the sample calcined at 250 ℃ still remains partial amorphous layer (
Fig. 3c), inferring that the obtained M1-250 is the composite of CoC
2O
4 and Co
3O
4, which could be further demonstrated by XRD (
Fig. 3e) and FT-IR spectra (Fig. S10 in Supporting information). In the XRD pattern of M1-250, weak characteristic peak of Co
3O
4 (at 36.8°) can be observed, which means partially formation of Co
3O
4 with poor crystallinity. Moreover, in the FT-IR spectra, it can be find that M1-250 still remain the absorption bands at around 3400 cm
−1 and 1625 cm
−1, related to O-H and C=O (from oxalate) stretching vibration separately, indicating the residual functional groups on the cobalt oxalate after the calcination at 250 ℃ [
40]. Besides, the strong absorptions at 573 and 664 cm
−1 of M1-250 are ascribed to the Co-O vibration of spinel Co
3O
4. Collectively, TGA, XRD, and FT-IR demonstrate that the sample M1-200 removed crystal water and retain the structure of cobalt oxalate; The M1-250 and M1-300 samples were both the hybrid of CoC
2O
4/Co
3O
4, while the Co/O atomic ratio of them are different (1:2.51 for M1-250 and 1:2.37 for M1-300, Figs. S9 and S11 in Supporting information). The sample M1-320 was conformed as Co
3O
4 with enhanced crystallinity. In addition, the N
2 adsorption/desorption isotherm curves (Fig. S12 in Supporting information) possesses the typical feature of mesoporous materials. With the increase of calculation temperature, the BET surface area increases gradually. The corresponding curve of BJH pore size distribution of M1-250 suggests that the average pore size is about 13 nm (Fig. S12c). Generally speaking, a large number of mesopores can promote better electrolyte permeation to access more redox active sites. However, higher crystallinity and more exposed crystal faces with the increase of calcination temperature may have a certain impact on the transport of electrons or protons in electrochemical processes.