Plate‐like carbon‐supported Fe <sub>3</sub> C nanoparticles with superior electrochemical performance
Chuan Chen, Sen Qian, Tianhao Yao, Jinghong Guo, Hongkang Wang
Abstract
Abstract Iron‐based anodes for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) with higher theoretical capacity, natural abundance and cheapness have received considerable attention, but they still suffer from the fast capacity fading. To address this issue, we report a facile synthesis of plate‐like carbon‐supported Fe 3 C nanoparticles through chemical blowing/carbonization under calcination. The ultrafine Fe 3 C nanoparticles are prone to be oxidized when exposing in air; thus, Fe 3 C/C with mild oxidization and the fully oxidized product of Fe 2 O 3 /C are successfully prepared by controlling the oxidization condition. When applied as an anode material in LIB, the Fe 3 C/C electrode demonstrates excellent cycle stability (826 mAh·g −1 after 120 cycles under 500 mA·g −1 ) and rate performance (410.6 mAh·g −1 under 2 A·g −1 ), compared with the Fe 2 O 3 /C counterpart. The enhanced electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the synergetic effect of the Fe 3 C with mild oxidation and the unique hierarchical structure of plate‐like carbon decorated with Fe 3 C catalyst. More importantly, this work may offer new approaches to synthesize other transition metal (e.g., Co, Ni)‐based anode material by replacing the precursor ingredient.