Facile synthesis of MTaO4 (M = Al, Cr and Fe) metal oxides and their application as anodes for lithium-ion batteries

Ternary metal oxides have attracted much attention in energy storage fields. Herein, tantalum-based oxides MTaO4 (M = Al, Cr and Fe) are synthesized by a facile co-precipitation method, and their performance as lithium-ion battery anodes are evaluated. Among them, the FeTaO4 electrode presents superior electrochemical performance compared to the MTaO4 (M = Al and Cr) and a reversible capacity of more than 200 mAh g−1 can be maintained after 100 cycles, while a capacity of 53.6 and 128.9 mAh g−1 can be obtained at the same condition for AlTaO4 and CrTaO4, respectively. The explanation that FeTaO4 exhibits the excellent electrochemical performance in MTaO4 (M = Al, Cr and Fe) are further discussed.