A comparative study on morphology dependent performance of neodymium – graphene as an anode material in lithium-ion batteries

The use of rare earth (RE) materials in various applications is gaining significant attention due to their unique electronic configurations. Neodymium (Nd), with its electronic configuration of 4f4 6s2, is one such RE material of interest. However, fabricating low-dimensional forms of RE materials presents a challenge. Additionally, achieving the synthesis of nanoscale RE morphologies on graphene surfaces adds another level of difficulty to the process. In this work, the fabrication of various nanoscale morphologies of neodymium (Nd) on graphene‑nickel foam (Gr-Ni) substrates is demonstrated. This is achieved using a double-heating zone chemical vapor deposition technique, where each heating zone reaches temperatures as high as 1500°C. The resulting Nd-Gr-Ni samples are grown under similar conditions and serve as free-standing additive free anode for direct application in lithium-ion batteries. Among the different nanoscale morphologies obtained, the fiber-like morphology shows the most promising performance. Compared to the ball-like and pyramided-like morphologies, the fiber-like morphology exhibits enhanced cyclic performance with 99% Columbic efficiency and high-capacity retention. Furthermore, the fiber-like anode material demonstrates stable rate performance within a current density range of approximately 0.1–0.5 mAcm−2. The mechanical stability of the Nd-Gr-Ni composites makes them suitable to produce practical LIBs.