Synergistic Ternary Composite (Carbon/Fe3O4@Graphene) with Hollow Microspherical and Robust Structure for Li-Ion Storage

Abstract

The electrode materials with hollow structure and/or graphene coating are expected to exhibit outstanding electrochemical performances in energy-storage systems. 2D graphene-wrapped hollow C/Fe3O4 microspheres are rationally designed and fabricated by a novel facile and scalable strategy. The core@double-shell structure SPS@FeOOH@GO (SPS: sulfonated polystyrene, GO: graphene oxide) microspheres are first prepared through a simple one-pot approach and then transformed into C/Fe3O4@G (G: graphene) after calcination at 500 °C in Ar. During calcination, the Kirkendall effect resulting from the diffusion/reaction of SPS-derived carbon and FeOOH leads to the formation of hollow structure carbon with Fe3O4 nanoparticles embedded in it. In the rationally constructed architecture of C/Fe3O4@G, the strongly coupled C/Fe3O4 hollow microspheres are further anchored onto 2D graphene networks, achieving a strong synergetic effect between carbon, Fe3O4, and graphene. As an anode material of Li-ion batteries (LIBs), C/Fe3O4@G manifests a high reversible capacity, excellent rate behavior, and outstanding long-term cycling performance (1208 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles at 100 mA g-1).