Carbonaceous materials have attracted as prospective anodes for rechargeable alkali-ion batteries. In this study, C.I. Pigment Violet 19 (PV19) was utilized as a carbon precursor to fabricate the anodes for alkali-ion batteries. During thermal treatment, the generation of gases from the PV19 precursor triggered a structural rearrangement into nitrogen- and oxygen-containing porous microstructures. The anode materials fabricated from pyrolyzed PV19 at 600 °C (PV19-600) showed outstanding rate performance and stable cycling behavior (554 mAh g-1 over 900 cycles at a current density of 1.0 A g-1) in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In addition, PV19-600 anodes exhibited reasonable rate capability and good cycling behavior (200 mAh g-1 after 200 cycles at 0.1 A g-1) in sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). To define the enhanced electrochemical performance of PV19-600 anodes, spectroscopic analyses were employed to reveal the storage mechanism and kinetics of the alkali ions in pyrolyzed PV19 anodes. A surface-dominant process in nitrogen- and oxygen-containing porous structures was found to promote the alkali-ion storage ability of the battery.
Keywords: lithium-ion batteries; pigment; pyrolysis; sodium-ion batteries; surface-dominated storage.