Preparation of well-dispersed MgFe2O4 nanospheres and their electrochemical performance for lithium-ion batteries

Exploitation of anode materials with pronounced discharge capacity and excellent cycling stability is the underlying in guaranteeing the large-scale utilization of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to meet the increasing demand for high power density electric vehicles, but still a great challenge. In this work, we fabricated well-dispersed MgFe2O4 nanospheres (MFONS) by a facile process and followed by annealing process, then employed as anode-active electrodes for LIBs. The electrochemical performance demonstrated that our prepared MFONS exhibits high initial discharge capacity of 1038 mAh g−1 under the current density of 500 mA g−1 and maintained at 634 mAh g−1 after cycling 350 times. Moreover, the reversible capacity could keep stable at ~468 mAh g−1 even at current density up to 3.2 A g−1. The excellent performances of MFONS should be attributed to the high dispersion, small nanosphere size, mesoporous nanostructure and large specific surface area which provide buffer room for volume expanding during discharge/charge process.