Lab talk
Dec 12, 2012
Energy storage team designs carbon-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocrystals
Thanks to their structural variety, stability and high capacity for Li+ storage, transition metal oxides are considered a candidate anode material for Li ion secondary batteries to overcome the energy density limitations of carbonaceous materials. Reporting their results in the journal Nanotechnology, researchers at Dongguk University describe a process that delivers a surface coating of amorphous carbon coupled with the controlled metal oxidation state in bulk through a simple glucose treatment.
In the work, the group synthesizes carbon-encapsulated Fe3O4 nanocrystals via thermal decomposition of glucose on iron oxide nanocrystals. These configurations of iron oxides possess an amorphous carbon layer and ferrous state with high electronic conductivity, which offer enhanced electrochemical properties compared with pristine iron oxides.
Furthermore, this finding provides an effective solution for synthesizing complex metal oxide nanostructures, which could lead to a greater number of electronic or electrochemical applications for metal oxides.
Additional information can be found in the journal Nanotechnology.
About the author
Kyeongse Song is a member of the Advanced Energy Materials Laboratory in the Department of Chemistry at Dongguk University, Seoul, Korea. Yong-Mook Kang, PhD, Assoc. Prof., is head of the Advanced Energy Materials Laboratory at the Dongguk University. The research interests of the group include the synthesis of advanced electrode materials and the fabrication of nanodevices for next-generation energy conversion and storage systems.
