Core-shell α-Fe₂O₃@α-MoO₃ nanorods as lithium-ion battery anodes with extremely high capacity and cyclability

α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles are uniformly coated on the surface of α-MoO3 nanorods through a two-step hydrothermal synthesis method. As the anode of a lithium-ion battery, α-Fe2O3@α-MoO3 core-shell nanorods exhibit extremely high lithium-storage performance. At a rate of 0.1 C (10 h per half cycle), the reversible capacity of α-Fe2O3@α-MoO3 core-shell nanorods is 1481 mA h g(-1) and a value of 1281 mA h g(-1) is retained after 50 cycles, which is much higher than that retained by bare α-MoO3 and α-Fe2O3 and higher than traditional theoretical results. Such a good performance can be attributed to the synergistic effect between α-Fe2O3 and α-MoO3 , the small size effect, one-dimensional nanostructures, short paths for lithium diffusion, and interface spaces. Our results reveal that core-shell nanocomposites have potential applications as high-performance lithium-ion batteries.