One-pot thermal decomposition of commercial organometallic salt to Fe2O3@C–N and MnO@C–N for lithium storage

Abstract

Iron oxide (Fe₂O₃) nanoparticles encapsulated in the N-doped carbon framework (Fe₂O₃@C–N) were synthesized via a one-step thermal decomposition reaction of commercial C₁₀H₁₂FeN₂NaO₈ (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid monosodium ferric salt), which can serve as the source of Fe, O, C, and N. As an anode material for lithium storage, the Fe₂O₃@C–N sample exhibits a reversible capacity of 1072 mA h g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹ and 553 mA h g⁻¹ after 500 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹. Furthermore, the synthetic strategy can be simply extended to prepare other similar products, e.g. MnO@C–N and ZnO@C–N. The MnO@C–N anode also shows good cycling performances (915 mA h g⁻¹ after 200 cycles at 0.2 A g⁻¹ and 768 mA h g⁻¹ after 500 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹).