The lithium-ion capacitor (LIC) is a novel energy storage device, pairing battery-type anodes with capacitor-type cathodes, capable of delivering high energy and power densities. The anode materials of excellent high-rate capability, however, are required to resolve the common kinetics imbalance issue for high-performance LICs. A simple one-step solvothermal, metal–organic framework (MOF) evolved process was developed to synthesize hollow porous α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles (α-Fe2O3 HPNPs) as an anode material of excellent high-rate capability for high-performance LICs. The α-Fe2O3 HPNP anode achieved an excellent high-rate capability and cycling stability, through accelerating lithium-ion diffusions with the porous shell and shortening lithium-ion diffusion paths and buffering large volume variations during cycling with the confined hollow space. The quantitative kinetic analyses showed that capacitive processes are the main contributor to the capacity generation of the α-Fe2O3 HPNP anode, making the α-Fe2O3 HPNP an excellent match with capacitor-type cathodes, glucose-derived carbon nanospheres (GCNS) of high specific surface areas, for the assembly of LICs. The α-Fe2O3 HPNP//GCNS LIC delivered a high energy density of 107 Wh kg–1 at 0.24 W kg–1 and maintained an adequate energy density of 86 Wh kg–1 at an extremely high power density of 9.68 kW kg–1. Moreover, it exhibited a high capacity retention of 84% after 2500 cycle operations at 1 A g–1. Both materials and nanostructure of electrodes play a key role for high-performance LICs, and the hollow porous nanoparticulate structure is proven to be an advantageous nanostructure for the anode materials of LICs.

Lithium-sulphur batteries (LSBs) have been drawing rapidly increasing research attention because of the low cost and high theorical capacity of sulphur. The applications of LSBs however are hampered by poor...