Jiarui Huang

Size-controlled synthesis and electrochemical performance of porous Fe2O3/SnO2 nanocubes as an anode material for lithium ion batteries

Uniform and monodisperse porous Fe2O3/SnO2 nanocubes with different particle sizes were synthesized by a template-free, economical aqueous solution method combined with subsequent calcination. The size of the precursor, FeSn(OH)6 cubes, was controlled carefully from 50–90 nm to 500–600 nm by adjusting the pH of the solution in the coprecipitation process. The structural and morphological evolution was characterized using a range of techniques. Thermal decomposition of the precursors led to an intimate mixture of hexagonal phase Fe2O3 and tetragonal phase SnO2. The as-prepared porous Fe2O3/SnO2 nanocubes with edge sizes in the range of 50–90 nm as anode materials for lithium storage achieved a very high reversible capacity of 620.8 mA h g−1 at 200 mA g−1 after 150 cycles. This paper reports a promising method for the design and preparation of porous nanocomposite electrodes for Li-ion batteries.

Removal of cobalt ions from aqueous solution by Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles

AbstractAg/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles were synthesized by simple two-step method without nitrogen atmosphere. In the whole reaction process, polyvinyl pyrrolidone protected Fe nanoparticles and Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles from oxidation. Moreover, the nanoparticles were characterized through high-resolution environment scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and energy dispersive spectrometer. The Fe nanoparticles and Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles were used to remove Co(II) ions from aqueous solution. Experiments revealed that Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles could quickly remove Co(II) ions from the aqueous solutions within 5xa0min, and the removal rate was up to 99%. Compared with Fe nanoparticles, as-prepared Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles exhibit a higher adsorption capacity and faster reaction rate due to the numerous nanoscale Ag/Fe primary batteries, which indicates that the Ag/Fe bimetallic nanoparticles are highl...