Improving the electrochemical performance of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles via a double protection strategy through carbon nanotube decoration and graphene networks

Iron oxide is a promising anode material for lithium ion batteries, but it usually exhibits poor electrochemical property because of its poor conductivity and large volume variation during the lithium uptake and release processes. In this work, a double protection strategy for improving electrochemical performance of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles through the use of decoration with multi-walled carbon nanotubes and reduced graphene oxides networks has been developed. The resulting MWCNTs-Fe₃O₄-rGO nanocomposites exhibited excellent cycling performance and rate capability in comparison with MWCNTs-Fe₃O₄, MWCNTs-Fe₃O₄ physically mixed with rGO, and Fe₃O₄-rGO. A reversible capacity of ~680 mA·h·g^-1 can be maintained after 100 cycles under a current density of 200 mA·g^-1.