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Nano Research 2014, 7(11): 1706-1717 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0531-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 28 August 2014

Rationally designed carbon-coated Fe3O4 coaxial nanotubes with hierarchical porosity as high-rate anodes for lithium ion batteries

Show Author's Information Fei Han1,§,  Lingjuan Ma2,3,§,  Qiang Sun1,  Cheng Lei1,  Anhui Lu1( )
State Key Laboratory of Fine ChemicalsSchool of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of TechnologyDalian116024China
State Key Laboratory of CatalysisDalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesDalian116023China
School of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringQufu Normal UniversityQufu273165China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
carbon, Fe3O4, nanotube, rate capability, cycle stability
Cite this article:
Han F, Ma L, Sun Q, et al. Rationally designed carbon-coated Fe3O4 coaxial nanotubes with hierarchical porosity as high-rate anodes for lithium ion batteries. Nano Research, 2014, 7(11): 1706-1717. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-014-0531-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Fe3O4 is a promising high-capacity anode material for lithium ion batteries, but challenges including short cycle life and low rate capability hinder its widespread implementation. In this work, a well-defined tubular structure constructed by carbon-coated Fe3O4 has been successfully fabricated with hierarchically porous structure, high surface area, and suitable thickness of carbon layer. Such purposely designed hybrid nanostructures have an enhanced electronic/ionic conductivity, stable electrode/electrolyte interface, and physical buffering effect arising from the nanoscale combination of carbon with Fe3O4, as well as the hollow, aligned and hierarchically porous architectures. When used as an anode material for a lithium-ion half cell, the carbon-coated hierarchical Fe3O4 nanotubes showed excellent cycling performance with a specific capacity of 1, 020 mAh·g-1 at 200 mA·g-1 after 150 cycles, a capacity retention of ca. 103%. Even at a higher current density of 1, 000 mA·g-1, a capacity of 840 mAh·g-1 is retained after 300 cycles with no capacity loss. In particular, a superior rate capability can be obtained with a stable capacity of 355 mAh·g-1 at 8, 000 mA·g-1. The encouraging results indicate that hierarchically tubular hybrid nanostructures can have important implications for the development of high-rate electrodes for future rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs).


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

Rationally designed carbon-coated Fe3O4 coaxial nanotubes with hierarchical porosity as high-rate anodes for lithium ion batteries

Show Author's information Fei Han1,§, Lingjuan Ma2,3,§, Qiang Sun1, Cheng Lei1, Anhui Lu1( )
State Key Laboratory of Fine ChemicalsSchool of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of TechnologyDalian116024China
State Key Laboratory of CatalysisDalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesDalian116023China
School of Chemistry and Chemical EngineeringQufu Normal UniversityQufu273165China

§ These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Fe3O4 is a promising high-capacity anode material for lithium ion batteries, but challenges including short cycle life and low rate capability hinder its widespread implementation. In this work, a well-defined tubular structure constructed by carbon-coated Fe3O4 has been successfully fabricated with hierarchically porous structure, high surface area, and suitable thickness of carbon layer. Such purposely designed hybrid nanostructures have an enhanced electronic/ionic conductivity, stable electrode/electrolyte interface, and physical buffering effect arising from the nanoscale combination of carbon with Fe3O4, as well as the hollow, aligned and hierarchically porous architectures. When used as an anode material for a lithium-ion half cell, the carbon-coated hierarchical Fe3O4 nanotubes showed excellent cycling performance with a specific capacity of 1, 020 mAh·g-1 at 200 mA·g-1 after 150 cycles, a capacity retention of ca. 103%. Even at a higher current density of 1, 000 mA·g-1, a capacity of 840 mAh·g-1 is retained after 300 cycles with no capacity loss. In particular, a superior rate capability can be obtained with a stable capacity of 355 mAh·g-1 at 8, 000 mA·g-1. The encouraging results indicate that hierarchically tubular hybrid nanostructures can have important implications for the development of high-rate electrodes for future rechargeable lithium ion batteries (LIBs).

Keywords: carbon, Fe3O4, nanotube, rate capability, cycle stability

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Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 20 May 2014
Revised: 20 June 2014
Accepted: 29 June 2014
Published: 28 August 2014
Issue date: November 2014

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21225312). We thank Prof. Wenjie Shen at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for his valuable discussion on materials preparation.

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