Controlled synthesis of perovskite lanthanum ferrite nanotubes with excellent electrochemical properties

Abstract

In this work, we have fabricated a series of perovskite-type oxide LaFeO₃ samples using a simple sol–gel method and further calcination treatment. We investigated the morphologies, structures and electrochemical performances of the fabricated samples in detail by controlling the calcination temperature and time. The morphology characterization indicates that when the calcination temperature and time are 700 °C and 3 h, respectively, LaFeO₃ presents as a large number of nanotubes with a diameter of 25 nm. Electrochemical performance testing indicates that the tubular LaFeO₃ shows excellent electrochemical performance. When 2 M KOH is used as the electrolyte, the LaFeO₃ nanotubes exhibit a high specific capacitance of 313.21 F g⁻¹ at a current density of 0.8 A g⁻¹. In addition, the electrode maintains 86.1% of the initial specific capacitance after 5000 cycles at a scan rate of 100 mV s⁻¹, indicating good long-cycle stability. These results indicate that LaFeO₃ nanotubes are a novel pseudocapacitance electrode material for application in energy storage devices.