Cake-like porous Fe3O4@C nanocomposite as high-performance anode for Li-ion battery

Abstract

• Cake-like porous Fe 3 O 4 coated with a carbon layer were developed. • It involves a coprecipitation–etching/local oxidation–coating–calcination process. • The Fe 3 O 4 @C nanocakes exhibit superior electrochemical lithium storage property. • High performance is due to the porous nanocake structure and carbon coating. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been used as an energy-storage system. On the other hand, the electrode needs to be modified to increase the Li storage performance of the battery. In this research, cake-like porous Fe 3 O 4 coated with a carbon layer (Fe 3 O 4 @C nanocakes) has been prepared and further used in anode for LIBs. The synthesis route includes a coprecipitation–etching/local oxidation–coating–calcination process. As expected, the Fe 3 O 4 @C nanocakes exhibit superior electrochemical properties (reversible capacities of 605.4 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 over 100 cycles). A series of measurements show that the porous nanocake structure and carbon coating constructs a conducting network for Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles and alleviates the volume change. More importantly, the Fe 3 O 4 @C nanocake anode exhibits excellent rate behavior (655.8 mAh g −1 at 1 A g −1 , 472.5 at 2 A g −1 ). In conclusion, the cake-like Fe 3 O 4 @C is proved to be a prospective electrode for LIBs with high specific capacities.