A simple preparation of rod-like Fe2O3 with superior lithium storage performance

There are increasing interests in fabricating Fe2O3 anode materials in recent years owing to their high theoretical capacity and natural abundance. However, Fe2O3 anode materials encounter great challenges in association with their intrinsic poor electronic conductivity and drastic volume variation during cycling. Herein, rod-like Fe2O3 is prepared through a simple thermal decomposition method. When evaluated as anode material for LIBs, the rod-like Fe2O3 exhibits excellent rate capability (∼400 mAh g−1 capacity even at high current density of 7 A g−1). Furthermore, high reversible capacity of ∼500 mAh g−1 can be retained at 3 A g−1 after 1000 cycles. This work demonstrates that the thermal decomposition method is facile and efficient for the preparation of high-performance Fe2O3 anode materials for LIBs.