Fe3o4 nanoparticles on 3D porous carbon skeleton derived from rape pollen for high-performance Li-ion capacitors

Abstract

Herein, a three-dimensional (3D) Fe3O4@C composite with hollow porous structure is prepared by simple solution method and calcination treatment with biomass waste rape pollen (RP) as a carbon source, which is served as an anode of Li-ion capacitor (LIC). The 3D interconnected porous structure and conductive networks facilitate the transfer of ion/electron and accommodate the volume changes of Fe3O4 during the electrochemical reaction process, which leads to the excellent performance of the Fe3O4@C composite electrode. The electrochemical analysis demonstrates that the hybrid LIC fabricated with Fe3O4@C as the anode and activated carbon (AC) as the cathode can operate at a voltage of 4.0 V and exhibit a high energy density of 140.6 Wh kg−1 at 200 W kg−1 (52.8 Wh kg−1 at 10 kW kg−1), along with excellent cycling stability, with a capacity retention of 83.3% over 6000 cycles. Hence, these encouraging results indicate that Fe3O4@C has great potential in developing advanced LICs electrode materials for the next generation of energy storage systems. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.