Green fabrication of sandwich-like and dodecahedral C@Fe3O4@C as high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries

Sandwich-structured C@Fe3O4@C hybrids with Fe3O4 nanoparticles sandwiched between two conductive carbon layers have attracted more and more attention owing to enhanced synergistic effects for lithium-ion storage. In this work, an environment-friendly procedure is developed for the fabrication of sandwich-like C@Fe3O4@C dodecahedrons. Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8)-derived carbon dodecahedrons (ZIF-C) are used as the carbon matrix, on which iron precursors are homogeneously grown with the assistance of a polyelectrolyte layer. The subsequent polydopamine (PDA) coating and calcination give rise to the formation of sandwiched ZIF-C@Fe3O4@C. When being evaluated as the anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the obtained hybrid manifests a high reversible capacity (1194 mAh g(-1) at 0.05 A g(-1)), good high-rate behavior (796 mAh g(-1) at 10 A g(-1)), and negligible capacity loss after 120 cycles.