A unique corn-like architecture composed of Se-doped carbon load Fe3O4 particles as high-performance lithium-ion battery anodes

Achieving high capacitance at high current density is one of the challenges for battery electrode materials to practical applications, especially for metal oxide electrode materials. Herein, we designed a unique corn-like architecture composed of Se-doped carbon load Fe 3 O 4 particles (C/Se-L-Fe 3 O 4 ) through a strategy of simple displacement reaction. In this corn-like structure, the selenium-doped rod-shaped carbon provides a fast electron transport network, and the Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles anchored on the surface of Se-doped carbon rod, which can have direct contact with the electrolyte, thus greatly shortening the ion transmission path. Benefiting from these advantages, C/Se-L-Fe 3 O 4 electrodes exhibit good stability and an ultrahigh specific capacity of 942.2 mAh g −1 after 600 cycles at 1 A g −1 . Especially, under a high current density of 5 A g −1 , a specific capacity of ca. 443 mAh g −1 is still retained, which is much higher than that of reported carbon-coated metal oxide electrode materials, confirming its excellent rate capability. The optimized structure and facile fabrication method provide a promising way for the utilization of transition metal oxides as high-performance and long life energy storage materials.