Facile and economical synthesis of hierarchical carbon-coated magnetite nanocomposite particles and their applications in lithium ion battery anodes

Hierarchical sea urchin-like structured carbon–Fe3O4 nanocomposite particles composed of a nanoporous interior and a carbon-coated surface have been prepared by a simple, economical and scalable synthetic process. When the nanocomposite particles were tested as lithium ion battery anodes, they exhibited high capacity, excellent cycle stability and rate performance due to their unique hierarchical nanoporous structure and carbon shell.