Hydrothermal synthesis of Fe5(PO4)4(OH)3·2H2O microflowers for fabricating high-performance LiFePO4/C composites

Hierarchical Fe5(PO4)4(OH)3·2H2O microflower was synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction with self-prepared β-FeOOH nanorod as raw material. The microflowers were self-assemblies of symmetric building blocks with deep grooves. The possible morphology evolution process was proposed. The microflowers morphology was retained when they were lithiated to prepare LiFePO4/C composites through a carbothermal reduction method with citric acid as both reducing agent and carbonaceous coating conductor source. As cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, the as-obtained LiFePO4/C composites deliver a high discharge capacity of 156 mAh g−1 at 0.1 C rate and exhibit excellent cycling stability, which may be ascribed to the homogeneous coated carbon and the unique microflower structure with grooves.