Solvent specific synthesis of nano corpse flowery lithiated iron oxide as an energy storage and gas sensing material

Abstract

Iron oxide based materials are one of the most appealing matrices and promising futuristic materials for energy conversion/storage devices. The solvent dependent synthesis and growth of lithiated iron oxide/LiFeO₂ nano flowers was established using a simple sol–gel method at low temperature. Herein, for the first time the development of flowery (corpse flower) shaped iron oxide based nano materials is reported. The effect of type of solvent on phase formation, shape and sizes of the as-synthesiszed samples was determined using charaterisation techniques such as X-ray diffraction, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, surface area, TEM, UV, and XPS. Li was incorporated into the iron oxide matrix in ethylene glycol medium and developed a unique and uniform corpse flowery shape, depending on various reaction parameters, whereas in the presence of ethylene glycol monomethyl ether, the shape of the nano materials completely changed. The supercapacitive and gas sensing properties of some selected synthesiszed materials are evalutaed. The specific capacitance values of the materials depend on the nature of the solvent and lithium content of the as-prepared samples. The lithiated iron oxide samples exhibit a supercapacitance value of 241 F g⁻¹ in 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ between −0.4 and 1 V versus Ag/AgCl. The gas sensing behaviour and optical properties are also included to open up the multidimensional applications of the samples.