Green and facile synthesis of carbon encapsulated Fe3N nanospheres grown on N-doped porous carbon nanosheet as an excellent anode material

The development of iron nitride anode materials is greatly impeded by their traditional synthetic methods. In this work, carbon encapsulated Fe3N nanospheres grown on N-doped porous carbon nanosheet is successfully prepared by a green, facile and controllable approach. Only a small nitrogen source is needed in the synthetic process by in-situ nitrogenization. The Fe3N nanospheres are coated by carbon and uniformly adhered to Ndoped porous carbon nanosheet, which prominently mitigates the variation of volume and elevates the electrochemical reaction kinetics. The feature is conducive to realizing a long life and brilliant rate performance. As an anode for lithium-ion batteries, a high discharge capacity of 484 mA h g-1 is delivered after 600 cycles at 2 A g-1. Extensive impact is brought by this study for the preparation and application of metal nitride materials.