High-capacity and high-rate Ni-Fe batteries based on mesostructured quaternary carbon/Fe/FeO/Fe3O4 hybrid material
Yanfei Zeng,
Xinyi Zhang,
Xianxing Mao,
Pei Kang Shen,
Douglas R. MacFarlane
Affiliations
Yanfei Zeng
Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Energy Materials, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530000, China
Xinyi Zhang
Hubei Key Laboratory of Ferro- & Piezoelectric Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronic Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China; Corresponding author
Xianxing Mao
Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Energy Materials, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530000, China
Pei Kang Shen
Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Energy Materials, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi University, Nanning, Guangxi 530000, China
Douglas R. MacFarlane
ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, School of Chemistry, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia; Corresponding author
Summary: The Ni-Fe battery is a promising alternative to lithium ion batteries due to its long life, high reliability, and eco-friendly characteristics. However, passivation and self-discharge of the iron anode are the two main issues. Here, we demonstrate that controlling the valence state of the iron and coupling with carbon can solve these problems. We develop a mesostructured carbon/Fe/FeO/Fe3O4 hybrid by a one-step solid-state reaction. Experimental evidence reveals that the optimized system with three valence states of iron facilitates the redox kinetics, while the carbon layers can effectively enhance the charge transfer and suppress self-discharge. The hybrid anode exhibits high specific capacity of 604 mAh⋅g−1 at 1 A⋅g−1 and high cyclic stability. A Ni-Fe button battery is fabricated using the hybrid anode exhibits specific device energy of 127 Wh⋅kg−1 at a power density of 0.58 kW⋅kg−1 and maintains good capacity retention (90%) and coulombic efficiency (98.5%).
