A Facile Synthetic Approach to Reduced Graphene Oxide-Fe3O4 Composite as High Performance Anode for Lithium-ion Batteries

Reduced graphene oxide-Fe3O4(rGO—Fe3O4) composite has been prepared via a facile and effective hydrothermal method by synthesizing Fe3O4nanospheres on the planes of reduced graphene oxide(rGO).Characterizations suggest the successful attachment of Fe3O4nanospheres to rGO sheets.The rGO—Fe3O4composite(66.7 wt%of Fe3O4in the composite) exhibits a stable capacity of 668 mAh g-1without noticeable fading for up to 200 cycles in the voltage range of 0.001—3.0 V,and the superior performance of rGO-Fe3O4is clearly established by comparison of the results with those from bare Fe3O4nanospheres(capacity declined to 117 mAh g-1only at the 200 th cycle).The excellent electrochemical performance of rGO—Fe3O4composite can be attributed to the fact that the uniform dispersion of the Fe3O4nanospheres growing on the rGO sheets avoids aggregation during Li uptake-release cycling,which is desired for cycle stability.Meanwhile,the rGO sheets afford not only elastic buffer to alleviate the volume variations of Fe3O4nanospheres,but also good ionic and electronic transport medium in the electrode.