Encapsulation of a Core-Shell Porous Fe3O4@Carbon Material with Reduced Graphene Oxide for Li+ Battery Anodes with Long Cyclability

Qichao Wu; Rui Yu; Zihan Zhou; Huaiwen Liu; Rongli Jiang

doi:10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c03126

Encapsulation of a Core-Shell Porous Fe₃O₄@Carbon Material with Reduced Graphene Oxide for Li⁺ Battery Anodes with Long Cyclability

Langmuir. 2021 Jan 19;37(2):785-792. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c03126. Epub 2021 Jan 6.

Authors

Qichao Wu¹, Rui Yu¹, Zihan Zhou¹, Huaiwen Liu¹, Rongli Jiang¹

Affiliation

¹ College of Chemical Engineering and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology, No. 1, Daxue Road, Xuzhou City 221116, Jiangsu Province, China.

PMID: 33401913
DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c03126

Abstract

Anode materials are critical for energy devices based on Li-ion batteries (LIBs). This work reports on a facile method to produce anodes based on carbon-coated Fe₃O₄ (CP-Fe₃O₄) that is encapsulated in reduced graphene oxide (rGO) layers forming a porous core-shell structure Fe₃O₄@carbon (rGO-CP-Fe₃O₄). First, Fe₃O₄ particles were coated with carbon by hydrothermal and carbothermal reduction methods leading to an intermediate product termed CP-Fe₃O₄. Next, CP-Fe₃O₄ was encapsulated by two-dimensional layered rGO to obtain CP-Fe₃O₄ composites with a three-dimensional structure. The Fe₃O₄ volume expansion during LIB cycling was inhibited by carbon and rGO and a three-dimensional electron transport network was generated by the introduction of rGO. The rGO-CP-Fe₃O₄ composite showed excellent electrochemical properties (839 mA h g^-1 at 0.3 A g^-1 after 200 cycles) and rate capacities (165 mA h g^-1 at 6.0 A g^-1). In addition, the rGO-CP-Fe₃O₄ pseudocapacitance was equal to 65% of the overall capacity at 5 mV s^-1.