A Facile Electrophoretic Deposition Route to the Fe3O4/CNTs/rGO Composite Electrode as a Binder-Free Anode for Lithium Ion Battery

Fe3O4 is regarded as an attractive anode material for lithium ion batteries (LIBs) due to its high theoretical capacity, natural abundance, and low cost. However, the poor cyclic performance resulting from the low conductivity and huge volume change during cycling impedes its application. Here we have developed a facile electrophoretic deposition route to fabricate the Fe3O4/CNTs (carbon nanotubes)/rGO (reduced graphene oxide) composite electrode, simultaneously achieving material synthesis and electrode assembling. Even without binders, the adhesion and mechanical firmness of the electrode are strong enough to be used for LIB anode. In this specific structure, Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) interconnected by CNTs are sandwiched by rGO layers to form a robust network with good conductivity. The resulting Fe3O4/CNTs/rGO composite electrode exhibits much improved electrochemical performance (high reversible capacity of 540 mAh g-1 at a very high current density of 10 A g-1, and a remarkable capacity of 1080 mAh g-1 can be maintained after 450 cycles at 1 A g-1) compared with that of commercial Fe3O4 NPs electrode.