N-doped coaxial CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers as anode material for high performance lithium ion battery

N-doped coaxial CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers have been successfully synthesized according to a facile solvothermal/hydrothermal method. The obtained CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers composites exhibited special three-dimensional (3-D) network structure, which endows they promising candidate for anode materials of lithium ion battery. The coaxial property of CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers could significantly improve the cycling and rate performance owing to the acceleration of charge/electron transfer, improvement of conductivity, maintaining of structural integrity and inhibiting the aggregation. The alpha-Fe2O3 nanoparticles with small size and high percentage of N-doped amount could further improve the electrochemical performance. As for the CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers, the capacity presented a high value of 1255.4 mAh/g at 0.1 C, and retained at 1213.4 mAh/g after 60 cycles. Even at high rate of 5 C, the capacity still exhibited as high as 319 mAh/g. The results indicated that the synthesized N-doped coaxial CNTs@alpha-Fe2O3@C nanofibers exhibited high cycling and rate performance. (c) 2017 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.