Carbon Fibers Embedded With Iron Selenide (Fe 3 Se 4 ) as Anode for High-Performance Sodium and Potassium Ion Batteries

Asif Mahmood; Zeeshan Ali; Hassina Tabassum; Aftab Akram; Waseem Aftab; Rashad Ali; Muhammad Waqas Khan; Suraj Loomba; Ahmed Alluqmani; Muhammad Adil Riaz; Muhammad Yousaf; Nasir Mahmood

doi:10.3389/fchem.2020.00408

Carbon Fibers Embedded With Iron Selenide (Fe ₃ Se ₄ ) as Anode for High-Performance Sodium and Potassium Ion Batteries

Front Chem. 2020 Jun 3:8:408. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.00408. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Asif Mahmood¹, Zeeshan Ali², Hassina Tabassum³, Aftab Akram², Waseem Aftab³, Rashad Ali⁴, Muhammad Waqas Khan^{5

6}, Suraj Loomba⁵, Ahmed Alluqmani⁵, Muhammad Adil Riaz¹, Muhammad Yousaf^{3

7}, Nasir Mahmood⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
² School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory for Theory and Technology of Advanced Battery Materials, Department of Material Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁴ School of Materials and Energy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
⁵ School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁶ Applied Porous Materials Unit, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Clayton, VIC, Australia.
⁷ International Center for Quantum Materials and Electron Microscopy Laboratory, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

The development of sodium and potassium ion batteries (SIBs/KIBs) has seen tremendous growth in recent years due to their promising properties as a potential replacement for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Here, we report ultrafine iron selenide (Fe₃Se₄) nanoparticles embedded into one-dimensional (1D) carbon fibers (Fe₃Se₄@CFs) as a potential candidate for SIBs/KIBs. The Fe-based metal-organic framework particles (MOFP) are used as a Fe source to obtain highly dispersed Fe₃Se₄ nanoparticles in the product. The Fe₃Se₄@CF consisted of ultrafine particles of Fe₃Se₄ with an average particle size of ~10 nm loaded into CFs with an average diameter of 300 nm. The product exhibited excellent specific activity of ~439 and ~435 mAh/g at the current density of 50 mA/g for SIBs and KIBs, respectively. In addition, the as-prepared anodes (Fe₃Se₄@CFs) exhibited excellent capacity retention up to several hundred cycles (700 cycles for SIBs and 300 cycles for KIBs). The high activity and excellent stability of the developed electrodes make Fe₃Se₄@CFs a promising electrode for next-generation batteries.

Keywords: anodes; hierarchical structures; iron selenide; potassium ion batteries; sodium ion batteries.