Superior lithium storage properties of α-Fe₂O₃ nano-assembled spindles

We report the synthesis and Li-cyclability of α-Fe₂O₃ nanospindles derived from Fe based metal organic framework (MOF). Presence of phase pure structure and nanospindle morphology is investigated through XRD and SEM/TEM analysis, respectively. Half-cell, Li/α-Fe₂O₃ delivered reversible capacity of ~1024mAhg^-1 at current density of 100mAg^-1 and showed excellent cyclability with capacity retention of over 90% after 40 galvanostatic cycles. Further, MOF derived α-Fe₂O₃ nanospindles are capable of delivering good reversible capacity under high current cycling. This clearly reveals that, MOF is one of the unique approaches to yield high performance iron oxide anodes and this approach can be extended to other transition metal oxides to develop high performance electrode materials.