Green and facile synthesis of Fe₃O₄ and graphene nanocomposites with enhanced rate capability and cycling stability for lithium ion batteries

A novel facile and environmentally friendly strategy was developed to prepare Fe₃O₄ and graphene (Fe₃O₄/G) nanocomposites through in situ thermal reduction of FeOOH nanorods and graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites, in which GO serves as a structural platform to uniformly incorporate as-prepared FeOOH nanorods via mutual electrostatic interactions. In the preparation process, GO was added into a FeOOH solution by two steps which are beneficial to form well confined nanocomposites. As anode materials for lithium ion batteries, the Fe₃O₄/G nanocomposites exhibited significantly enhanced electrochemical performance with excellent cycling stability and a high reversible capacity of ∼1200 mA h g^-1 at a current density of 1000 mA g^-1 after long-term testing for 1000 cycles, and a remarkable rate capability of ∼660 mA h g^-1 at 5000 mA g^-1, thus exhibiting great potential as advanced anode materials for lithium ion batteries.