A sustainable approach for scalable production of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals with 3D interconnected porous architectures on flexible carbon textiles as integrated electrodes for lithium-ion batteries

Herein, we demonstrate a sustainable strategy for scalable production of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals on flexible carbon textiles via controllable chemical bath deposition process. The assembly of α-Fe2O3 nanocrystals is densely anchored onto the carbon textiles, and the temperature-dependent mass loading and crystal size of α-Fe2O3 are systematically investigated. As an integrated electrode for lithium-ion batteries, the optimized Fe2O3@CTs with ultrathin three-dimensional interconnected porous architectures achieves significantly enhanced cycling performance and rate capability attributing to the improved stability, electronic interconnection, and shortened solid state diffusion pathway for Li+ ions/electrons. After the reactivation of the precursor, the Li-ion batteries based on the recycled Fe2O3@CTs exhibits electrochemical performance with no decay compared to that of the devices based on the fresh products. This sustainable methodology, considering material abundance, eco-efficiency, synthetic approach and scalability, is of crucial importance to both academy and industry for achieving high-performance lithium-ion batteries.