Nitrogen-doped turbostratic carbon nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared using fast single-step flame synthesis by directly burning acetonitrile in air atmosphere and investigated as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. The as-prepared N-doped carbon NPs show excellent Li-ion stoarage properties with initial discharge capacity of 596 mA h g(-1), which is 17% more than that shown by the corresponding undoped carbon NPs synthesized by identical process with acetone as carbon precursor and also much higher than that of commercial graphite anode. Further analysis shows that the charge-discharge process of N-doped carbon is highly stable and reversible not only at high current density but also over 100 cycles, retaining 71% of initial discharge capacity. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy also shows that N-doped carbon has better conductivity for charge and ions than that of undoped carbon. The high specific capacity and very stable cyclic performance are attributed to large number of turbostratic defects and N and associated increased O content in the flame-synthesized N-doped carbon. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report which demonstrates single-step, direct flame synthesis of N-doped turbostratic carbon NPs and their application as a potential anode material with high capacity and superior battery performance. The method is extremely simple, low cost, energy efficient, very effective, and can be easily scaled up for large scale production.

Lithium-sulfur batteries have theoretical specific energy higher than state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries. However, from a practical perspective, these batteries exhibit poor cycle life and low energy content owing to the polysulfides shuttling during cycling. To tackle these issues, researchers proposed the use of redox-inactive protective layers between the sulfur-containing cathode and lithium metal anode. However, these interlayers provide additional weight to the cell, thus, decreasing the practical specific energy. Here, we report the development and testing of redox-active interlayers consisting of sulfur-impregnated polar ordered mesoporous silica. Differently from redox-inactive interlayers, these redox-active interlayers enable the electrochemical reactivation of the soluble polysulfides, protect the lithium metal electrode from detrimental reactions via silica-polysulfide polar-polar interactions and increase the cell capacity. Indeed, when tested in a non-aqueous Li-S coin cell configuration, the use of the interlayer enables an initial discharge capacity of about 8.5 mAh cm−2 (for a total sulfur mass loading of 10 mg cm−2) and a discharge capacity retention of about 64 % after 700 cycles at 335 mA g−1 and 25 °C.

In this study, novel nitrogen (N)-doped hollow core-mesoporous shell carbon (N-HCMSC) capsules with high surface area are synthesized by simple three-step processes and explored as metal-free counter electrode (CE) in comparison with undoped HCMSC in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It is shown that N-HCMSC significantly improves the catalytic activity toward the reduction of both Co­(bpy)3 3+ and I3 – due to much lower charge-transfer resistance (R CT) at the CE/electrolyte interface. This is attributed not only to excellent surface properties including three-dimensionally interconnected hierarchical marco/mesoporosity with high surface area but also to N doping in N-HCMSC framework. Among various N species in the N-HCMSC framework, pyridinic and quaternary N species are considered to contribute significantly to the catalytic activity. In addition, N-HCMSC CE exhibits much better electrochemical stability than Pt CE toward both Co­(bpy)3 2+/3+ and I–/I3 – redox reactions. The N-HCMSC enhances the cell efficiency and fill factor up to 8.76 and 77.6%, respectively, at one sun illumination and is readily applicable as a potential alternative of costly Pt-based CE for DSSCs with Y123-sensitized photoanodes.

In recent years, graphene-based materials have been in the forefront as electrode material for electrochemical energy generation and storage. Despite this prevalent interest, synthesis procedures have not attained three important efficiency requirements, that is, cost, energy, and eco-friendliness. In this regard, in the present work, graphene nanoplatelets with selectively functionalized edges (XGnPs) are prepared through a simple, eco-friendly and efficient method, which involves ball milling of graphite in the presence of hydrogen (H2), bromine (Br2), and iodine (I2). The resultant HGnP, BrGnP, and IGnP reveal significant exfoliation of graphite layers, as evidenced by high BET surface area of 414, 595, and 772 m(2) g(-1), respectively, in addition to incorporation of H, Br, and I along with other oxygen-containing functional groups at the graphitic edges. The BrGnP and IGnP are also found to contain 4.12 and 2.20 at % of Br and I, respectively in the graphene framework. When tested as supercapacitor electrode, all XGnPs show excellent electrochemical performance in terms of specific capacitance and durability at high current density and long-term operation. Among XGnPs, IGnP delivers superior performance of 172 F g(-1) at 1 A g(-1) compared with 150 F g(-1) for BrGnP and 75 F g(-1) for HGnP because the large surface area and high surface functionality in the IGnP give rise to the outstanding capacitive performance. Moreover, all XGnPs show excellent retention of capacitance at high current density of 10 A g(-1) and for long-term operation up to 1000 charge-discharge cycles.