Metal oxide anode materials are affected by severe volume expansion and cracking in the charging/discharging process, resulting in low capacity and poor cycle stability, which limits their application in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, a new strategy is uncovered for a preparing spinel-structured, multi-component transition metal oxide, (Ni,Co,Mn)Fe2O4−x, with oxygen vacancies as an LIB anode material. The as-fabricated material presented excellent reversible capacity and cycling stability, delivering a discharge capacity of 1240.2 mAh g−1 at 100 mA g−1 for 200 cycles and then at 300 mA g−1 for 300 additional cycles. It presented extremely long cycle stability even at 2 A g−1, revealing 650.5 mAh g−1 after 1200 cycles. The good lithium storage capacity can be ascribed to the entropy stabilization effect, the multi-cation synergistic effect, abundant oxygen vacancies and the spinel structure. This study provides a new opportunity to fabricate and optimize conversion-type anodes for LIBs with satisfactory electrochemical performance.
