A dual strategy for improving lithium storage performance, a case of Fe2O3

•α-Fe2O3 nanoellipses were fabricated by a simple hydrothermal method with glycine.•The elliptical α-Fe2O3-SA electrode exhibits enhanced lithium storage performance.•The reason for the enhanced performance of elliptical α-Fe2O3-SA was investigated.

In this paper, we developed a dual strategy, the nanostructure engineering of active material and the proper choice of binder, to achieve excellent lithium storage performance of transition metal oxides. α-Fe2O3 nanoellipses with a mean size of 180–230 nm (edge length) and 140–170 nm (edge width) were fabricated by a simple hydrothermal method in the presence of glycine. When tested as anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs), the α-Fe2O3 nanoellipse electrode with sodium alginate (SA) binder exhibits greatly enhanced performance for lithium storage. The capacity could be retained as high as 1164 mA h g−1 at a current density of 100 mA g−1 for over 60 cycles. Even cycled at high current densities of 2000–5000 mA g−1, high capacities of 443–628 mA h g−1 can be achieved, whereas the electrode with the conventional poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) binder suffers from rapid capacity decay under the same test conditions.

Graphical abstractThe α-Fe2O3 nanoellipse with180–230 nm (edge length) and 140–170 nm (edge width) has been synthesize and tested as anode material for LIBs. The α-Fe2O3 nanoellipse electrode with sodium alginate (SA) binder exhibits greatly enhanced performance for lithium storage.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide