Nitrogen-Doped Porous Carbon/Co₃O₄ Nanocomposites as Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

A simple and industrially scalable approach to prepare porous carbon (PC) with high surface areas as well as abundant nitrogen element as anode supporting materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) was developed. Herein, the N-doped PC was prepared by carbonizing crawfish shell, which is a kind of food waste with abundant marine chitin as well as a naturally porous structure. The porous structure can be kept to form the N-doped PC in the pyrolysis process. The N-doped PC-Co3O4 nanocomposites were synthesized by loading Co3O4 on the N-doped PC as anode materials for LIBs. The resulting N-doped PC-Co3O4 nanocomposites release an initial discharge of 1223 mA h g(-1) at a current density of 100 mA g(-1) and still maintain a high reversible capacity of 1060 mA h g(-1) after 100 cycles, which is higher than that of individual N-doped PC or Co3O4. Particularly, the N-doped PC-Co3O4 nanocomposites can be prepared in a large yield with a low cost because the N-doped PC is derived from abundant natural waste resources, which makes it a promising anode material for LIBs.

How to improve the stability and rate performance of lithium-ion batteries with transition metal oxide anodes

“…The initial charge and discharge capacities are approximately 1187 and 1859 mA h/g, respectively, resulting in an initial coulombic efficiency of ;64%. The initial irreversible capacity loss of the Co 3 O 4 @C@PGC nanosheets could be associated with the inevitable formation of SEI and decomposition of electrolyte 8,9,85,89 and in good agreement with the above CV results. The discharge voltage plateau at ;1.1 V in the first cycle shift to ;1.2 V since the second cycle, just corresponding to the shift of reduce peak in CV curves from 0.97 V to 1.15 V. The areas under the charge and discharge curves are comparable, indicating a very low energy loss during charge/discharge.…”

“…29,50,84 In the first discharge process, the obvious cathodic peak was located at around 0.97 V, which was attributed to the electrochemical reduction of Co 3 O 4 to metallic cobalt accompanying the formation of Li 2 O and the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film. [84][85][86] In the anodic process, broad peaks located at around 2.15 V can be ascribed to the reversible oxidation reaction from cobalt to Co 3 O 4 . 78 The total electrochemical reaction mechanism of Co 3 O 4 anode can be described by the following electrochemical conversion reaction 87 :…”

“…The capacity is even higher than the theoretical capacity of Co 3 O 4 . Such high specific capacity should be attributed to the following points: firstly, the PGC nanosheets have a reversible capacity of 580 mA h/g, and there would be synergetic effects between PGC nanosheets and Co 3 O 4 NPs, 85 which can also contribute to the lithium storage capacity. Secondly, the reversible decomposition of the electrolyte with the formation of SEI and extra lithium ion adsorption/desorption on the SEI during cycling may lead to the high experimental lithium storage capacity as well.…”

Facile synthesis of N-doped carbon nanosheet-encased cobalt nanoparticles as efficient oxygen reduction catalysts in alkaline and acidic media

“…The synthesis of NCN-Co-x was accomplished by one-step pyrolysis using low-cost corn starch and cobalt acetate as precursors with the presence of dicyandiamide. Now, many applications of biological materials in electrochemical detection are reported [34][35][36]. As is well known, the corn starch is a cheap and sustainable raw material that can be easily extracted from corn.…”

Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Membrane Derived from Polyimide as Free‐Standing Electrodes for Flexible Supercapacitors

“…[ 36,37 ] The third way is the pyrolysis of nitrogen heterocyclic compounds, nitrogen-containing polymers or biomass derivatives (chitosan, glucosamine or crawfi sh shell) to keep nitrogen element on the basal plane of carbon materials, increasing rich defects, and improving electrode/electrolyte wettability. [ 38,39 ] The theoretical calculations demonstrates that the doping with nitrogen signifi cantly enhances the electronic density of states near the Fermi level of N-doped materials and thus greatly enhances the interfacial capacity. [ 40 ] The above-mentioned and many other reports on N-doped methods do not allow controlling of the exact N-doping confi gurations.…”