Electrospun Nanostructured Iron Oxides for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries

Abstract

The versatility and ability of formation of one-dimensional nanostructures make electrospinning one of the promising methods to fabricate the components of energy storage devices. Electrospinning is widely explored in lithium ion batteries (LIBs) for the development of electrodes as well as electrolytes. Electrospun electrodes, both anodes and cathodes, are widely studied because they can deliver excellent electrochemical performance and are stable and freestanding even without using binders. For the best performance of LIBs, different materials were examined as electrodes, especially as the anodes, which serve as the negative electrode in LIBs. Metal oxides and carbon are considered to be the most favored anode material in LIBs. Among the different metal oxides studied, iron oxide-based anodes are emerging materials under serious research due to its superior properties which make them to deliver better properties than other materials commonly used. High specific capacity and large lithium storage through a conversion mechanism make iron oxide a promising anode than that of carbon-based ones. However, poor capacity retention, higher operating potential, and large polarization limit its application in LIBs. Electrospinning can resolve these issues by the formation of nano-sized structures. For achieving the better and best electrochemical properties, different structural and morphological modifications were carried out using electrospinning. Porous/hollow iron oxide-based nanotubes and nanorods are found to be delivering good electrochemical performance than the pristine-based anodes. Further enhancement is also done by the formation of composites with conducting dopants. The significance of iron oxide-based anodes and the methods for the enhancement of its electrochemical properties will be discussed in detail in this chapter.