Porous Fe2O3-C microcubes as anodes for lithium-ion batteries by rational introduction of Ag nanoparticles

Abstract

To solve the poor conductivity of the anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and enhance the lithium-ion transportation, silver-incorporated Fe2O3-C (Fe2O3-C-Ag) porous microcubes were fabricated through polydopamine reduction of AgNO3 and subsequently high temperature carbonization process using the prussian blue as template. Interestingly, polydopamine not only served as reducing agent for Ag+ but also as carbon source in this work, which avoid adding additional reduction agent and high temperature, resulting in a simple and mild reduction condition. When Fe2O3-C-Ag microcubes were performed as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), the hybrid materials behaved pretty electrochemical properties. The introduction of noble metal (Ag) and carbon to transition metal oxides was an innovative method to form anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), which can effectively increase the conductivity of the electrode materials as well as inhibit the volume expansion during cycling. With 10% (wt%) Ag nanoparticles coating in the hybrid composites, the Fe2O3-C-Ag-10 microcubes exhibit good reversible capacities and pretty cyclic performance (858 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles at 100 mA g−1). This novel approach can provide a potential idea to design advanced anode materials for LIBs.