Abstract
Fe2O3 and Fe2O3:Ge nanofibers (NFs) were prepared via electrospinning and thoroughly characterized via several techniques in order to investigate the effects produced by germanium incorporation in the nanostructure and crystalline phase of the oxide. The results indicate that reference Fe2O3 NFs consist of interconnected hematite grains, whereas in Fe2O3:Ge NFs, constituted by finer and elongated nanostructures developing mainly along their axis, an amorphous component coexists with the dominant α-Fe2O3 and γ-Fe2O3 phases. Ge4+ ions, mostly dispersed as dopant impurities, are accommodated in the tetrahedral sites of the maghemite lattice and probably in the defective hematite surface sites. When tested as anode active material for sodium ion batteries, Fe2O3:Ge NFs show good specific capacity (320 mAh g−1 at 50 mA g−1) and excellent rate capability (still delivering 140 mAh g−1 at 2 A g−1). This behavior derives from the synergistic combination of the nanostructured morphology, the electronic transport properties of the complex material, and the pseudo-capacitive nature of the charge storage mechanism.
Highlights
Affordable and clean energy represents one of the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly five years ago [1]
Morphological and textural properties of the electrospun NFs were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses (Figure 1)
germanium (IV) isopropoxide (GeIPO) to the FeAc2 -PAN-DMF precursor solution translated into evident differences in the morphology and texture of the calcined NFs
Summary
Affordable and clean energy represents one of the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly five years ago [1]. The development of cost-effective materials allowing improving power density, cyclability and round-trip efficiency is a key point both for more mature EES devices, such as redox flow batteries [15,16,17,18], and for the newer, developing ones, such as post-lithium batteries [18,19,20,21,22,23] Research on the latter topic is greatly focused on nanostructured materials [18,24,25,26,27,28]. Electrospun nanomaterials, suitable for production at the large-scale and able to meet requirements of a wide range of EES applications [18,27,28], have been extensively evaluated as active components in post-lithium batteries [18,27,28,29,30,31]
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