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Plate-like carbon-supported Fe3C nanoparticles with superior electrochemical performance

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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 Fe3C nanoparticles through chemical blowing/carbonization under calcination. The ultrafine Fe3C nanoparticles are prone to be oxidized when exposing in air; thus, Fe3C/C with mild oxidization and the fully oxidized product of Fe2O3/C are successfully prepared by controlling the oxidization condition. When applied as an anode material in LIB, the Fe3C/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 Fe2O3/C counterpart. The enhanced electrochemical performance can be ascribed to the synergetic effect of the Fe3C with mild oxidation and the unique hierarchical structure of plate-like carbon decorated with Fe3C 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.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by State Grid Corporation of China (No. 5202011600TY).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electric Power Intelligent Sensing Technology and Application State Grid Corporation Joint Laboratory, Future Science Park, Beijing, 102209, China

    Chuan Chen, Sen Qian & Jing-Hong Guo

  2. Department of Electric Power Sensing Technology, Future Science Park, Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Co. Ltd, Beijing, 102209, China

    Chuan Chen, Sen Qian & Jing-Hong Guo

  3. School of Electrical Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Tian-Hao Yao & Hong-Kang Wang

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China

    Tian-Hao Yao & Hong-Kang Wang

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  1. Chuan Chen
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  2. Sen Qian
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  3. Tian-Hao Yao
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  4. Jing-Hong Guo
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Correspondence to Tian-Hao Yao or Hong-Kang Wang.

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Chen, C., Qian, S., Yao, TH. et al. Plate-like carbon-supported Fe3C nanoparticles with superior electrochemical performance. Rare Met. 40, 1402–1411 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-020-01653-5

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