Study on fabrications and electrochemical performance of Fe9S10@C composite materials

The low-cost preparation of Fe9S10 @C composite materials for energy storage application is realized successfully by using the gelatins and FeSO4·7 H2O. Here, the fundamental approaches such as water-solvent, drying and carbonization are utilized to achieve this low-coast preparation. On the basis of observations of SEM morphologies, SAXD and BET evaluations, it is found that a lot of macropores and mesoporous structures exist in the fabricated Fe9S10 @C materials, while the Fe9S10 of the Fe9S10 @C composites is in nano sizes. The formations of complex pore structures facilitate the transfer of Li+, which can lead the Fe9S10 @C to possess a tremendous electrochemical performance. For instance, the storage capacity of Fe9S10 @C-4.17 is 645.0 mAh g−1 after cycling 100 times at 0.1 A g−1. Additionally, the Fe9S10 @C-4.17 still show the storage capacity at 298.5 mAh g−1, when carrying out the charge-discharge 200 cycles at 1 A g−1. The present study may offer novel insights into the preparation of Fe9S10 @C materials with high electrochemical performance.