Bottom-up synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon scaffolds for lithium and sodium storage

Hongling Lu; Renpeng Chen; Yi Hu; Xiaoqi Wang; Yanrong Wang; Lianbo Ma; Guoyin Zhu; Tao Chen; Zuoxiu Tie; Zhong Jin; Jie Liu

doi:10.1039/c6nr08296c

Bottom-up synthesis of nitrogen-doped porous carbon scaffolds for lithium and sodium storage

Nanoscale. 2017 Feb 2;9(5):1972-1977. doi: 10.1039/c6nr08296c.

Authors

Hongling Lu¹, Renpeng Chen¹, Yi Hu¹, Xiaoqi Wang¹, Yanrong Wang¹, Lianbo Ma¹, Guoyin Zhu¹, Tao Chen¹, Zuoxiu Tie², Zhong Jin¹, Jie Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China. zhongjin@nju.edu.cn j.liu@duke.edu.
² Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China. zhongjin@nju.edu.cn j.liu@duke.edu and College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China. zhongjin@nju.edu.cn j.liu@duke.edu and Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.

PMID: 28102408
DOI: 10.1039/c6nr08296c

Abstract

Here we report an effective bottom-up solution-phase process for the preparation of nitrogen-doped porous carbon scaffolds (NPCSs), which can be employed as high-performance anode materials for both lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The as-obtained NPCSs show favorable features for electrochemical energy storage such as high specific surface area, appropriate pore size distribution (3.9 nm in average), large pore volume (1.36 cm³ g^-1), nanosheet-like morphology, a certain degree of graphitization, enlarged interlayer distance (0.38 nm), high content of nitrogen (∼5.6 at%) and abundant electrochemically-active sites. Such a unique architecture provides efficient Li⁺/Na⁺ reservoirs, and also possesses smooth electron transport pathways and electrolyte access. For LIBs, the anodes based on NPCSs deliver a high reversible capacity of 1275 mA h g^-1 after 250 cycles at 0.5 C (1 C = 372 mA g^-1), and outstanding cycling stabilities with a capacity of 518 mA h g^-1 after 500 cycles at 5 C and 310 mA h g^-1 after 1500 cycles even at 10 C. For SIBs, the anodes based on NPCSs display a reversible capacity of 257 mA h g^-1 at 50 mA g^-1, and superior long-term cycling performance with a capacity of 191 mA h g^-1 after 1000 cycles at 200 mA g^-1.