A green and template recyclable approach to prepare Fe3O4/porous carbon from petroleum asphalt for lithium-ion batteries

In this work, a green and template-recyclable method was designed to obtain Fe3O4/petroleum asphalt based carbons (Fe3O4/PC) with different Fe3O4 contents as anode material for Li-ion batteries. 73-Fe3O4/PC with 73% Fe3O4 can deliver a high reversible capacity of 785 mAh g(-1) at 200 mA g(-1) with excellent stability. The superior electrochemical performance of as-made Fe3O4/PC is attributed to the good electrical conductivity of carbon framework from asphalt and its dimensional confinement on Fe3O4 nanoparticles. This study not only demonstrates a green and economical route for high-value utilization of petroleum asphalt in energy storage, but also paves a new way for the preparation of porous carbon via recyclable template, which is indispensable for green chemistry. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.