Polymeric iron(III) acetate derived hierarchical maghemite microstructures assembled by porous nanobelts for improved lithium storage performances

- Porous γ-Fe2O3 microstructures are obtained by a thermal decomposition of polymeric iron(III) acetate precursor.
- Porous γ-Fe2O3 microstructures assembled by thin nanobelts.
- Porous γ-Fe2O3 nanostructures exhibit excellent electrochemical performances.

Hierarchical maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) microstructures have been synthesized by a facile and efficient templating approach involving the bottom-up formation and the subsequent thermal decomposition of the polymeric iron (III) acetate. The hierarchical microstructures of γ-Fe2O3 are derived from the template, which are assembled by porous nanobelts composed of nanocrystals. When evaluated as an anode material for lithium ion batteries, the hierarchical γ-Fe2O3 microstructures exhibit excellent electrochemical lithium storage performances including high reversible capacity (1300 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1), excellent rate capability (383 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1) and good cyclic stability (700 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 1 A g−1), The excellent performances are explored in terms of hierarchically porous structures, which promotes the fast and effective lithium ion transport, and buffer the large volume expansion during the charge and discharge cyclings.

Hierarchical γ-Fe2O3 microstructures assembled by porous nanobelts exhibit high specific capacity, excellent rate performance and outstanding cycling stability.343