Elsevier

Journal of Power Sources

Volume 416, 15 March 2019, Pages 62-71
Journal of Power Sources

Perspective
Facile and efficient synthesis of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals by glucose-assisted thermal decomposition method and its application in lithium ion batteries

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2019.01.080Get rights and content

Highlights

  • α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals are prepared by a facile thermal decomposition method.

  • The α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals show superior lithium storage performance.

  • Reversible interfacial lithium storage boosts the electrochemical performance.

  • When used in full cell LIBs, the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals still display good performance.

Abstract

Nanostructured electrode materials have significant potential for boosting the electrochemical performance of secondary batteries. Fabrication of these nanomaterials with a facile and cost-effective route is crucial for their practical applications. Herein, α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals are prepared by a rather simple and low-cost one-step thermal decomposition method with FeSO4·7H2O and glucose as raw materials. When evaluated as anode material for lithium ion batteries, the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 1100 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 300 cycles; The long-term cyclability shows 690 mAh g−1 at 3 A g−1 after 800 cycles; Even when the current is increased to 10 A g−1, a comparable capacity of 406 mAh g−1 is retained. The microstructure and composition evolutions of the α-Fe2O3 electrode during cycling are analyzed by ex-situ field emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. It is evidenced that the reversible interfacial lithium storage and pulverization of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals are contributors to the enhanced capacity upon long-term cycling. When applied in a full cell lithium ion battery, the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals electrode still display a high capacity and good cycling stability.

Introduction

Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are being widely applied as power source for portable electronic devices and electrical vehicles owing to their attracting features, such as large power and energy densities, long cyclic life, and environmental friendliness [[1], [2], [3], [4]]. To meet the ever-increasing requirements for higher energy storage density of LIBs, the development of high capacity electrode active materials is desperately desired. However, the conventional graphite anode suffers a low theoretical capacity (372 mAh g−1) and poor rate performance. Nanostructured transition metal oxides (TMOs) have attracted great attention due to their high theoretical capacity, abundant raw materials, and enhanced safety [[5], [6], [7], [8], [9]]. Among them, iron-based oxides are notable due to their high theoretical capacity, abundance, low cost, and environmental friendliness [10]. In particular, α-Fe2O3 has been considered as one of the most promising anode materials for next generation LIBs because of its advantages of high theoretical capacity (1007 mAh g−1), abundant sources, nontoxicity, and low cost [11,12]. The mechanism of lithiation/delithiation reaction of Fe2O3 is an electrochemical conversion process (Fe2O3 + 6Li ↔ 2Fe + 3Li2O) [1,[13], [14], [15]]. In spite of these attractive features, the rapid capacity degradation and poor cyclability attributed to the dramatic volume changes (∼90%) of α-Fe2O3 during lithiation/delithiation cycles severely hamper the practical application of this materials in LIBs [[16], [17], [18], [19]]. It is well recognized that nanostructured materials could not only effectively release the strain stress caused by volume change, but also offer short Li+ diffusion pathways, which are determining factors for improving the cyclic stability and rate performance of electrode [4,20]. Consequently, a variety of nanostructured α-Fe2O3, such as nanoparticles [21], nanorods [22,23], nanowires [24], nanotubes [25], nanosheets [26], and nanoflowers [27], have been synthesized to enhance the cyclic performance and rate capability. It should be noted that most of the reported methods, such as hydrothermal/solvothermal method [22,28], template method [29], and electrospinning technique [30] for synthesizing these nanostructured α-Fe2O3 are generally time-consuming, including sophisticated steps, high energy consumption, and difficult to scale up, which greatly limit the development and practical application of nanostructured α-Fe2O3 in LIBs. Therefore, it is still a big challenge but desirable to pursue a facile, efficient, and low-cost method for massive production of nanostructured α-Fe2O3 with high performances for next-generation LIBs.

In the present work, we reported an efficient, low-cost, and scalable strategy for the synthesis of interconnected α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles by a very facile one-step glucose-assisted thermal decomposition route. Such an interconnected α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals exhibit outstanding electrochemical performances in terms of high rate capability and long-term cycling stability, when evaluated as an anode material for LIBs. Furthermore, full cell was also assembled by using the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals as anode together with LiCoO2 cathode, which shows good cycling performance and high capacity, implying its great potential application as electrode for LIBs. This work provides a facile and cost-effective method that is potential competitive for massive production of high-performance nanostructured electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage devices.

Section snippets

Preparation of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals

All chemicals employed in this work were of analytical reagent grade and used without further purification. The α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals were prepared via a facile one-step thermal decomposition route. In a typical synthesis, 2 g glucose and 2 g FeSO4·7H2O were dissolved in 5 mL of distilled water under ultrasonication to form a pale green mixed solution. Then, the mixed solution was transferred into a crucible and heated in a muffle furnace at 600 °C for 3 h at a ramp of 5 °C min−1 in air to

Microstructures of the prepared sample

Fig. 1 shows the XRD pattern of the as-prepared α-Fe2O3 sample. All the diffraction peaks can be perfectly indexed to the rhombohedral phase of hematite (α-Fe2O3, JCPDS 33–0664). The well-defined diffraction peaks suggest the high degree of crystallinity. The calculated lattice constants of the as-prepared α-Fe2O3 sample are a = b = 5.036 and c = 13.749 Å, which are identical with the standard JCPDF card (a = b = 5.036 and c = 13.749 Å), indicating its good crystallinity. The size and surface

Conclusions

Interconnected α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals have been prepared by a very facile and low-cost one-step thermal decomposition method with FeSO4·7H2O and glucose as raw materials. When evaluated as anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity of 1100 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 300 cycles, and 690 mAh g−1 at 3 A g−1 after 800 cycles; Even at the ultrahigh current of 10 A g−1, a comparable capacity of 406 mAh g−1 is still retained.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51464009 and 51664012), Guangxi Natural Science Foundation of China (2017GXNSFAA198117 and 2015GXNSFGA139006), Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical and Magnetochemical Functional Materials (EMFM20181102/EMFM20181117), and Innovation Project of Guangxi Graduate Education of China (YCSW2018159).

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