Facile synthesis of porous iron oxides heterostructural nanosheets as an enhanced anode material for lithium ion battery

To solve the common problems of intrinsically poor electrical conductivity and drastic volume expansion of the Fe2O3 anode in lithium-ion batteries, we synthesized porous Fe2O3 heterostructural nanosheets with β-Fe2O3/α-Fe2O3 by simple pyrolyzing of iron(III) ethylene diamine tetra acetate (Fe-EDTA) precursor and subsequently washing to remove NaCl particles formed in situ. Porous Fe2O3 nanosheets combining the advantages of large-area porous structure and β-Fe2O3/α-Fe2O3 heterostructure as an anode showed improved lithium ion storage performance. The porous nanosheets exhibited a high reversible capacity (1131.1 mA h g−1 at a current density of 1.0 A g−1 after 300 cycles), and a remarkable rate capability of 505 mA h g−1 at 10 A g−1.