Study on Electrochemical Properties of Carbon Submicron Fibers Loaded with Cobalt-Ferro Alloy and Compounds

Abstract

In this work, carbon submicron fiber composites loaded with a cobalt-ferric alloy and cobalt-ferric binary metal compounds were prepared by electrospinning and high temperature annealing using cobalt-ferric acetone and ferric acetone as precursors and polyacrylonitrile as a carbon source. The phase transformation mechanism of the carbon submicron fiber-supported Co-Fe bimetallic compound during high temperature annealing was investigated. The electrochemical properties of the carbon submicron fiber-supported Co-Fe alloy and Co-Fe oxide self-supported electrode materials were investigated. The results show that at 138 °C, the heterogeneous submicron fibers of cobalt acetylacetonate and acetylacetone iron began to decompose and at 200 °C, CoFe2O4 was generated in the fiber. As the annealing temperature increases further, some metal compounds in the carbon fiber are reduced to CoFe2O4 alloy, and two phases of CoFe2O4 and CoFe-Fe-alloy exist in the fiber. After 200 cycles, the specific capacity of CF-P500 is 500 mAh g−1. The specific capacity of the composite carbon submicron fiber electrode material can be significantly improved by the introduction of CoFe2O4. When the binary metal oxides are used as electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries, alloy dealloying and conversion reactions can occur at the same time in the reverse process of lithium intercalation, the two reactions form a synergistic effect, and the cobalt-iron alloy in the material increases the electrical conductivity. Therefore, the carbon submicron fiber loaded with CoFe2O4/CoFe has an excellent electrochemical performance.