Direct synthesis of self-assembled ferrite/carbon hybrid nanosheets for high performance lithium-ion battery anodes.

Extensive applications of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to various portable electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles result in the increasing demand for the development of electrode materials with improved electrochemical performance including high energy, power density, and excellent cyclability, while maintaining low production cost. Here, we present a direct synthesis of ferrite/carbon hybrid nanosheets for high performance lithium-ion battery anodes. Uniform-sized ferrite nanocrystals and carbon materials were synthesized simultaneously through a single heating procedure using metal-oleate complex as the precursors for both ferrite and carbon. 2-D nanostructures were obtained by using sodium sulfate salt powder as a sacrificial template. The 2-D ferrite/carbon nanocomposites exhibited excellent cycling stability and rate performance derived from 2-D nanostructural characteristics. The synthetic procedure is simple, inexpensive, and scalable for mass production, and the highly ordered 2-D structure of these nanocomposites has great potential for many future applications.