FeIII chelated organic anode with ultrahigh rate performance and ultra-long cycling stability for lithium-ion batteries

Organic electrodes for rechargeable devices have attracted tremendous attention as a promising alternative in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Unfortunately, most of the reported organic anodes face huge challenges in practical application because of the low reversible specific capacity, poor rate performance, and short cycling life. Herein, we facilely chelated the renewable tannic acid (TA) via ferric ions and generated a novel organic anode material (TA-Fe) using in LIBs for the first time. Benefiting from the chelation between ferric ions and catechol groups, which changes the inherent microstructure of TA and inhibits its dissolution in electrolyte, the TA-Fe anodes exhibit outstanding electrochemical performance including high reversible capacity (1016 mAh/g at 0.1 A/g), excellent rate capability, and ultra-long cycling stability (10.0 A/g over 16000 cycles with a capacity retention of 78.8%). Besides presenting a high-performance organic electrode, we expect this work to inspire the preparation of other organic materials for advanced LIBs.