Evaluation of nanostructured Nd0.7Co0.3FeO3 perovskite obtained via hydrothermal method as anode material for Li-ion battery

Perovskite structured Nd0.7Co0.3FeO3 nanoparticles were synthesized through a facile hydrothermal method. The structural orientation was followed by varying the calcination temperature between 500 and 1100 °C. Detailed structure and morphology of the samples were investigated using various characterization techniques such as TG-DTA, XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, EDX, XPS, AFM and BET study. The average particle size of Nd0.7Co0.3FeO3 nanoparticles was in 50–80 nm for the sintering temperature of 500–1100 °C. Well crystalline orthorhombic structure was confirmed from the XRD measurements. In addition, interesting morphological changes from non-uniform flakes to an array of spherical nanoparticles with respect to the applied temperatures was observed. The electrochemical performance of Nd0.7Co0.3FeO3 anode material has demonstrated moderate lithium ion insertion/extraction ability with average discharge capacity of about 291 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles at 0.5 mV s−1. The obtained charging and discharging profiles of the perovskite compound shows that it could be adopted as future electrode material for storage application.