Nanostructured Fe2O3 and CuO composite electrodes for Li ion batteries synthesized and deposited in one step

Nanostructured composite electrodes based on iron and copper oxides for applications in Li-ion batteries are produced by Electrostatic spray pyrolysis (ESP). The electrodes are directly formed by electrospraying precursor solutions containing either iron or copper salts dissolved in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) together with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF) as binder. The morphology and the structure of the deposited electrodes are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which show that sub-micrometric deposits are formed as a composite of oxide nanoparticles of a few nanometers in a Riff polymer matrix. Electrochemical characterization by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests demonstrate that the conversion reactions in these electrodes enable initial discharge capacities of about 800 mAh g(-1) and 1550 mAh g(-1) for CuO and Fe2O3, respectively. The capacity retention in both cases needs further improvements. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.