Increasing demands for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with high energy density and high power density require highly reversible electrochemical reactions to enhance the cyclability and capacities of electrodes. As the reversible formation/decomposition of the solid electrolyte interface (SEI) film during the lithiation/delithiation process of Fe3S4 could bring about a higher capacity than its theoretical value, in the present work, synthesized Fe3S4 nanoparticles are sandwich-wrapped with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to fabricate highly reversible and long cycling life anode materials for high-performance LIBs. The micron-sized long slit between sandwiched RGO sheets effectively prevents the aggregation of intermediate phases during the discharge/charge process and thus increases cycling capacity because of the reversible formation/decomposition of the SEI film driven by Fe nanoparticles. Furthermore, the RGO sheets interconnect with each other by a face-to-face mode to construct a more efficiently conductive network, and the maximum interfacial oxygen bridge bonds benefit the fast electron hopping from RGO to Fe3S4, improving the depth of the electrochemical reactions and facilitating the highly reversible lithiation/delithiation of Fe3S4. Thus, the resultant Fe3S4/RGO hybrid shows a highly reversible charge capacity of 1324 mA h g-1 over 275 cycles at a current density of 100 mA g-1, even retains 480 mA h g-1 over 500 cycles at 1000 mA g-1, which are much higher than reported values.
Keywords: Fe3S4; anode; lithium ion batteries; reduced graphene oxide; solid electrolyte interface film.