Abstract
Herein is reported the synthesis of ordered mesoporous α‐Fe~2~O~3~ thin films produced through coassembly strategies using a poly(ethylene‐co‐butylene)‐block‐poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymer as the structure‐directing agent and hydrated ferric nitrate as the molecular precursor. The sol–gel derived α‐Fe~2~O~3~ materials are highly crystalline after removal of the organic template and the nanoscale porosity can be retained up to annealing temperatures of 600 °C. While this paper focuses on the characterization of these materials using various state‐of‐the‐art techniques, including grazing‐incidence small‐angle X‐ray scattering, time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV–vis and Raman spectroscopy, the electrochemical properties are also examined and it is demonstrated that mesoporous α‐Fe~2~O~3~ thin‐film electrodes not only exhibit enhanced lithium‐ion storage capabilities compared to bulk materials but also show excellent cycling stabilities by suppressing the irreversible phase transformations that are observed in microcrystalline α‐Fe~2~O~3~.