Amorphous Fe2O3 Porous Films Grown on Multilayer Graphene for High-Performance LIB Anodes

Abstract

Amorphous Fe2O3 has special high electrochemical performance as anode materials of LIBs due to its disorderly arranged atoms. However, the issue of its low intrinsic electric conductivity should be solved rationally and facilely. In this work, amorphous Fe2O3 porous films are chemically deposited on the mechanically exfoliated multilayer graphene (MLG) nanosheets, forming a Fe2O3/MLG/Fe2O3 sandwich nanostructure. The addition of 10[Formula: see text]mg of EDTA-2Na is crucial for the formation of amorphous nature and holes in Fe2O3 films on MLG. This composite exhibits better electrochemical performance as LIB anodes than well-crystallized Fe2O3 nanoparticles, amorphous Fe2O3 films without holes and amorphous Fe2O3 isolated nanoparticles on MLG, which are prepared using 0[Formula: see text]mg, 5[Formula: see text]mg, 20[Formula: see text]mg of EDTA-2Na, respectively. The optimized composite delivers a reversible discharge capacity of 1067[Formula: see text]mAh g[Formula: see text] at 100[Formula: see text]mA g[Formula: see text] after 100 cycles. Moreover, a capacity of 522 mAh g[Formula: see text] is delivered at a high current density of 2[Formula: see text]A g[Formula: see text]. The high electrochemical performance of the composite is attributed to the amorphous nature and porous film structure of Fe2O3, and well combination of Fe2O3 and highly conductive MLG substrate.