Hierarchical hollow Fe2O3 micro-flowers composed of porous nanosheets as high performance anodes for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Hierarchical hollow nano/micro structure has received wide attention in new-generation, high-performance lithium-ion battery applications. Here, novel hierarchical hollow Fe₂O₃ micro-flowers composed of porous nanosheets are prepared by controlled thermal decomposition of the iron alkoxide precursor. On the basis of morphology investigations in time-dependent experiments, the possible two-stage growth mechanism of the hollow flower-like iron alkoxide is proposed. When used as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries, the hollow Fe₂O₃ micro-flowers exhibit superior cycling performance (960 mA h g⁻¹ at 100 mA g⁻¹ up to 250 cycles) and rate capability (reversible charging capacity of 750 mA h g⁻¹ at 500 mA g⁻¹ after 500 cycles and 518 mA h g⁻¹ at 1000 mA g⁻¹ after 670 cycles) thanks to their hollow interiors and the porous nanosheet subunits. This research suggests that the hollow Fe₂O₃ micro-flowers could be suitable as a high rate performance anode material for lithium-ion batteries.