Low-Cost Production of Fe3O4/C Nanocomposite Anodes Derived from Banana Stem Waste Recycling for Sustainable Lithium-Ion Batteries

The development of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has become an important aspect of advanced technologies. Although LIBS have already outperformed other secondary batteries, they still require improvement in various aspects. Most crucially, graphite, the commercial anode, has a lower capacity than emerging materials. The goal of this research is to develop carbon-based materials from sustainable sources. Banana stem waste was employed as a precursor because of its xylem structure and large surface area. In addition, catalytic graphitization of biomass yields both graphitic carbon and metal oxides, which can be converted into higher-capacity Fe3O4/C nanocomposites. The nanocomposites consist of nanoparticles distributed on the surface of the carbon sheet. It was found that Fe3O4/C nanocomposites not only achieved a superior specific capacity (405.6 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g), but also had good stability in long-term cycling (1000 cycles). Interestingly, they had a significantly greater capacity than graphite at a high current density (2 A/g), 172.8 mAh/g compared to 63.9 mAh/g. For these reasons, the simple preparation approach, with its environmental friendliness and low cost, can be employed to produce Fe3O4/C nanocomposites with good electrochemical properties. Thus, this approach may be applicable to varied biomasses. These newly developed Fe3O4/C nanocomposites derived from banana waste recycling were found to be suitable to be used as anodes for sustainable LIBs.