Abstract
This study demonstrates the development of a promising heterostructure anode by a facile synthetic strategy of fabricating Fe2N in the scaffold of sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) embedded in a polyaniline (PANI) matrix. The hierarchically nanostructured anode material consolidates the high theoretical ca-pacity, multielectron transfer capability, and high ionic diffusivity of Fe2N with the high conductivity and mechanical flexibility of the graphene framework. The PANI matrix serves not only as a glue to combine the Fe2N and SGO sheets but also provides additional conductivity, mechanical strength, and stability. The assembled heterostructure Fe2N-SGO/PANI-24 h delivers a reversible capacity of 864.1 mAh/g after 500 cycles, with an initial discharge capacity of 1204.8 mAh/g at a current density of 0.05 A/g, which is superior to the constituent components and other counterparts at the same current density. The pro-nouncedly enhanced performance of Fe2N-SGO/PANI-24 h compared to pristine Fe2N reveals that the PANI matrix and SGO boosted the capacity, buffered the volume variations, and kept the overall con-ductivity of the electrode during successive charge-discharge cycles. Furthermore, increasing the reac-tion time helped in the uniform distribution of Fe2N-SGO in the PANI matrix, which improves the overall performance.(c) 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.