“…Due to increasing energy and environmental demands, the utilization of energy storage devices have become a pressing essential need in both civil and military applications (Dunn et al, 2011 ; Etacheri et al, 2011 ; Chu and Majumdar, 2012 ; Li et al, in press ). As materials play a leading role in the research of energy storage devices, metal oxides are considered as promising materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices, such as secondary rechargeable batteries(Chen et al, 2017 ; Cui et al, 2018 ; Yi et al, 2018 ; Zhao et al, 2018 ; Zheng et al, 2018 ), fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors (Jiang et al, 2012 ; Wang et al, 2012 , 2016 ; Wu et al, 2012 ; Nithya and Arul, 2016 ). Among various metal oxides, Fe 3 O 4 is extensively studied as an alternative electrode material for LIBs, with advantages of low cost, natural abundance, high electronic conductivity and high capacity (926 mAh·g −1 ; Huang et al, 2017 ; Liu et al, 2017 ; Wang et al, 2018 ; Yan et al, 2018 ).…”