Construction of heterostructured NiFe<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub>-C nanorods by transition metal recycling from simulated electroplating sludge leaching solution for high performance lithium ion batteries
Xueqian Lei, Youpeng Li, Changzhou Weng, Yanzhen Liu, Weizhen Liu, Junhua Hu, Chenghao Yang, Zhang Lin, Meilin Liu
Abstract
NiFe2O4 has been regarded as one of the promising candidates for lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode materials due to its high theoretical specific capacity. However, the large volume expansion and pulverization of NiFe2O4 during the charge/discharge process result in severe capacity fading. Herein, heterostructured NiFe2O4-C nanorods have been successfully fabricated by recovering transition metals from simulated electroplating sludge leaching solution. The constructed NiFe2O4-C heterointerface plays a vital role in accommodating volume change, stabilizing the reaction products and providing rapid electron and Li+ ion transportation ability, resulting in a high and stable Li+ accommodation performance. The fabricated NiFe2O4-C nanorods demonstrate a high specific capacity (889.9 mA h g-1 at 100 mA g-1), impressive rate capability (861.5, 704.5, 651.4, 579.6 and 502.1 mA h g-1 at 0.2, 0.6, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 A g-1) and cycling stability (650.2 mA h g-1 at 2 A g-1 after 500 cycles). This work exemplifies a facile and effective approach for the fabrication of high performance LIB electrode materials by recycling metals from electroplating sludge in an application-oriented manner.