Synthesis of iron oxide embedded reduced graphene oxide composites with enhanced electrochemical performance as Li-ion battery anodes

The iron oxide embedded reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composites were synthesized by a facile and cost-effective graphenothermal synthesis route. Initially, Fe ₂ O ₃ was synthesized by thermal heating and used as a Fe source (in addition to GO) to prepare the Fe ₃ O ₄ /rGO composite. During reduction process, GO was reduced to rGO with three dimensional architecture and the micron/sub-micron Fe ₂ O ₃ particles to nano-sized Fe ₃ O ₄ particles. As a LIB anode, the Fe ₃ O ₄ /rGO composites displayed an initial discharge capacity of 1405 mAh g ⁻¹ at 0.1 A g ⁻¹ and maintained a capacity of 812 mAh g ⁻¹ at 0.5 A g ⁻¹ for 250 consecutive cycles. Furthermore, FeO/rGO electrodes exhibited better cycling stability for several cycles even at 0.5 A g ⁻¹ . So the composite materials developed here hold high potential for energy storage applications.