In Situ Engineering Toward Core Regions: A Smart Way to Make Applicable FeF3@Carbon Nanoreactor Cathodes for Li-Ion Batteries

Iron fluorides (FeFx) have attracted great interest in Li-ion batteries due to their high theoretical capacity, low cost, and preferable cell safety. However, their practical utilization is severely impeded by inferior electrode kinetics, leading to poor electrode cyclability and rate capabilities. The major bottleneck should be lack of any effective engineering techniques to make reliable encapsulation and conducting matrix on soluble FeFx species. Herein, we propose an applicable synthetic strategy where the massive production of FeF3@carbon nanoreactors (total size: similar to 60 nm) can be easily achieved by in situ engineering toward the core regions in hybrids, with the iron rust wastes and common solvents as raw materials. Such functionalized configurations can well make up for the shortcomings of FeF3 species, enabling them with outstanding cathode behaviors involving excellent reversible capacity retention (similar to 270% higher than that of a bare FeF3 electrode after 600 cycles) and drastically enhanced rate performance. This paradigm work provides a facile and scalable method to make superior and sustainable cathodes and, moreover, offers a feasible engineering protocol to make water-soluble species encapsulated into carbon matrix, not merely for batteries but also for other wide range of fields like catalysis, nanomedicine, etc.