The fabrication of hollow magnetite microspheres with a nearly 100% morphological yield and their applications in lithium ion batteries

Hollow Fe3O4 (H-Fe3O4) microspheres were fabricated through a facile one-step solvothermal synthesis, which was performed in an ethylene glycol (EG)–diethylene glycol (DEG) mixed solvent using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the stabilizer. The addition of DEG increased the viscosity of the system, which caused the Fe3O4 primary crystal to aggregate slower and the morphological yield to approach nearly 100%. The as-prepared hollow Fe3O4 microspheres show promise for application in lithium ion battery anodes and showed a reversible specific capacity of 453.3 mAh g−1 after 50 cycles at 100 mA g−1.

Graphical abstractHollow Fe3O4 (H-Fe3O4) microspheres with a nearly 100% morphological yield were fabricated through a facile one-step solvothermal synthesis, which was performed in an ethylene glycol (EG)–diethylene glycol (DEG) mixed solvent using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the stabilizer. The as-prepared hollow Fe3O4 microspheres had promising applications as lithium ion battery anodes.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide