Synthesized Fe-doped Co₃O₄ nanoparticles-based anode for high-performance lithium-ion batteries application

Co3O4 has been considered a promising anode material because of its high theoretical capacity (890 mAh/g) and remarkable energy density. Unfortunately, it suffers from low initial coulombic efficiency, rapid capacity fading, poor electronic conductivity, large volume changes, and aggregation during the lithium ion intercalation/deintercalation process. In this work, a series of Fe2+-doped Co3O4 nanostructured materials Co3(1-x)Fe3xO4 (x = 0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.03) were produced by a simple chemical co-precipitation method. The Fe doping led to a slight increase of the lattice parameter, which is beneficial to the rapid diffusion of Li+ ion during the lithiation/delithiation process. Meanwhile, the Fe-doped Co3O4 sample exhibited an excellent rate capability of 886.47 mAh/g at 500 mA/g, and outstanding cyclic stability (1156.91 mAh/g for 50 cycles, with the capacity retention rate of 83.53% at the current density of 100 mA/g), demonstrating improved electrochemical performance, compared with that of pure Co3O4. The good electrochemical performance profited from the formation of oxygen vacancies by Fe doping, which provided more space for Li+ diffusion and improved the electronic conductivity of the anode material. This work provides a simple way to improve the comprehensive electrochemical performance of the transitional metal oxide Co3O4 anode electrodes for lithium-ion batteries.