Insitu grown graphitic carbon/Fe2O3/carbon nanofiber composites for high performance freestanding anodes in Li-ion batteries†
Abstract
Conductive carbon nanofiber electrodes containing graphitic carbon coated Fe2O3 nanoparticles are synthesized via facile, one-pot electrospinning. The catalytic effect of Fe allows in situ formation of onion-shaped graphene layers on Fe3C nanoparticles upon carbonization, which are transformed into Fe2O3 by annealing. The graphene coating offers several important synergies: it not only prevents the Fe2O3 particles from peeling off from the carbon nanofiber substrate, but it also buffers the volume change of Fe2O3 and improves the conductivity of the electrode. As a consequence, the freestanding composite anode delivers an excellent capacity of 826 mA h gā1 after 105 charge/discharge cycles at 0.1 A gā1 for Li ion batteries.