Evaporation-induced synthesis of carbon-supported Fe3O4 nanocomposites as anode material for lithium-ion batteries

We report the high-yield preparation of carbon-supported superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanocomposites (C-Fe3O4-NCs) using a simple evaporation-induced method. The Fe3O4 products consist of similar to 3-10 nm nanocrystals uniformly embedded in a carbon matrix to assemble nanoparticles with a size range from 40 to 80 nm. It is shown that lithium-ion batteries (LIB) assembled from heat-treated C-Fe3O4-NCs present attractive characteristics including a high specific capacity of 752 mA h g(-1) at a current rate of 0.2 C for the second discharge cycle as well as good cycling performances with similar to 87% retained capacity after 100 cycles.