From Jackfruit Rags to Hierarchical Porous N-Doped Carbon: A High-Performance Anode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Renewable biomass-derived carbon materials have attracted increasing research attention as promising electrode materials for electrochemical energy storage devices, such as sodium-ion batteries (SIBs), due to their outstanding electrical conductivity, hierarchical porous structure, intrinsic heteroatom doping, and environmental friendliness. Here, we investigate the potential of hierarchical N-doped porous carbon (NPC) derived from jackfruit rags through a facile pyrolysis as an anode material for SIBs. The cycling performance of NPC at 1 A/g for 2000 cycles featured a stable reversible capacity of 122.3 mA·h/g with an outstanding capacity retention of 99.1%. These excellent electrochemical properties can be attributed to the unique structure of NPC; it features hierarchical porosity with abundant carbon edge defects and large specific surface areas. These results illuminate the potential application of jackfruit rags-derived porous carbon in SIBs.

Keywords

Porous carbon / N-doped carbon / Sodium-ion battery / Anode / Jackfruit rags / Energy storage and conversion

References

[1] Shih CF, Zhang T, Li JH, et al. Powering the future with liquid sunshine. Joule, 2018, 2(10): 1925-1949.

[2] Chen X, Du Y, Zhang NQ, et al. 3D self-supported nanoarchitectured arrays electrodes for lithium-ion batteries. J Nanomater, 2012, 2012: 1-19.

[3] Tarascon JM, Armand M. Issues and challenges facing rechargeable lithium batteries. Nature, 2001, 414(6861): 359-367.

[4] Liu K, Liu YY, Lin DC, et al. Materials for lithium-ion battery safety. Sci Adv, 2018, 4(6): eaas9820

[5] Zhao R, Liang ZB, Zou RQ, et al. Metal-organic frameworks for batteries. Joule, 2018, 2(11): 2235-2259.

[6] Liang YL, Lai WH, Miao ZC, et al. Nanocomposite materials for the sodium-ion battery: a review. Small, 2018, 14(5): 1703951

[7] Pan HL, Hu YS, Chen LQ. Room-temperature stationary sodium-ion batteries for large-scale electric energy storage. Energy Environ Sci, 2013, 6(8): 2338-2361.

[8] Liu TF, Zhang YP, Jiang ZG, et al. Exploring competitive features of stationary sodium ion batteries for electrochemical energy storage. Energy Environ Sci, 2019, 12(5): 1512-1533.

[9] Ben YM, Vergnet J, Saubanere M, et al. Unified picture of anionic redox in Li/Na-ion batteries. Nat Mater, 2019, 18(5): 496-502.

[10] Yao XH, Ke YJ, Ren WH, et al. Defect-rich soft carbon porous nanosheets for fast and high-capacity sodium-ion storage. Adv Energy Mater, 2019, 9(6): 1803260

[11] Kong DB, Gao Y, Xiao ZC, et al. Rational design of carbon-rich materials for energy storage and conversion. Adv Mater, 2018

[12] Hou HS, Qiu XQ, Wei WF, et al. Carbon anode materials for advanced sodium-ion batteries. Adv Energy Mater, 2017, 7: 1602898

[13] Li YM, Xu SY, Wu XY, et al. Amorphous monodispersed hard carbon micro-spherules derived from biomass as a high performance negative electrode material for sodium-ion batteries. J Mater Chem A, 2015, 3(1): 71-77.

[14] Hu XD, Sun XH, Yoo SJ, et al. Nitrogen-rich hierarchically porous carbon as a high-rate anode material with ultra-stable cyclability and high capacity for capacitive sodium-ion batteries. Nano Energy, 2019, 56: 828-839.

[15] Mao YJ, Chen YT, Qin J, et al. Capacitance controlled, hierarchical porous 3D ultra-thin carbon networks reinforced Prussian blue for high performance Na-ion battery cathode. Nano Energy, 2019, 58: 192-201.

[16] Vadahanambi S, Chun HH, Jung KH, et al. Nitrogen doped holey carbon nano-sheets as anodes in sodium ion battery. RSC Adv, 2016, 6(44): 38112-38116.

[17] Fu LJ, Tang K, Song KP, et al. Nitrogen doped porous carbon fibres as anode materials for sodium ion batteries with excellent rate performance. Nanoscale, 2014, 6(3): 1384-1389.

[18] Wang L, Yang CL, Dou S, et al. Nitrogen-doped hierarchically porous carbon networks: synthesis and applications in lithium-ion battery, sodium-ion battery and zinc-air battery. Electrochim Acta, 2016, 219: 592-603.

[19] Yang YR, Qiu M, Liu L, et al. Nitrogen-doped hollow carbon nanospheres derived from dopamine as high-performance anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. Nano, 2016, 11(11): 1650124

[20] Zhang KL, Li XN, Liang JW, et al. Nitrogen-doped porous interconnected double-shelled hollow carbon spheres with high capacity for lithium ion batteries and sodium ion batteries. Electrochim Acta, 2015, 155: 174-182.

[21] Liu H, Jia MQ, Sun N, et al. Nitrogen-rich mesoporous carbon as anode material for high-performance sodium-ion batteries. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2015, 7(49): 27124-27130.

[22] Correa C, Kruse A. Biobased functional carbon materials: production, characterization, and applications—a review. Materials, 2018, 11(9): 1568

[23] Jiang LL, Sheng LZ, Fan ZJ. Biomass-derived carbon materials with structural diversities and their applications in energy storage. Sci China Mater, 2018, 61(2): 133-158.

[24] Kim MJ, Park JE, Kim S, et al. Biomass-derived air cathode materials: pore-controlled S, N-Co-doped carbon for fuel cells and metal–air batteries. ACS Catal, 2019, 9: 3389-3398.

[25] Zeng G, Zhou BL, Yi LC, et al. Green and facile fabrication of hierarchical N-doped porous carbon from water hyacinths for high performance lithium/sodium ion batteries. Sustain Energy Fuels, 2018, 2(4): 855-861.

[26] Chaudhari NK, Bhattacharjya D, Kim H, et al. N-carbon from waste tea as efficient anode electrode material in lithium ion batteries. J Nanosci Nanotechnol, 2017, 17(3): 1838-1846.

[27] Qin DC, Liu ZY, Zhao YZ, et al. A sustainable route from corn stalks to N, P-dual doping carbon sheets toward high performance sodium-ion batteries anode. Carbon, 2018, 130: 664-671.

[28] Shen F, Zhu HL, Luo W, et al. Chemically crushed wood cellulose fiber towards high-performance sodium-ion batteries. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2015, 7(41): 23291-23296.

[29] Zou GQ, Huang ZD, Zhao GG, et al. Evaluating the storage behavior of superior low-cost anode material from biomass for high-rate sodium-ion batteries. J Electrochem Soc, 2017, 164(7): A1431-A1437.

[30] Zhang N, Liu Q, Chen WL, et al. High capacity hard carbon derived from Lotus stem as anode for sodium ion batteries. J Power Sources, 2018, 378: 331-337.

[31] Wang PZ, Zhu XS, Wang QQ, et al. Kelp-derived hard carbons as advanced anode materials for sodium-ion batteries. J Mater Chem A, 2017, 5(12): 5761-5769.

[32] Qian WJ, Sun FX, Xu YH, et al. Human hair-derived carbon flakes for electrochemical supercapacitors. Energy Environ Sci, 2014, 7(1): 379-386.

[33] Sheesley RJ, Schauer JJ, Chowdhury Z, et al. Characterization of organic aerosols emitted from the combustion of biomass indigenous to South Asia. J Geophys Res, 2003, 108(D9): 4285

[34] Zheng XY, Luo JY, Lv W, et al. Two-dimensional porous carbon: synthesis and ion-transport properties. Adv Mater, 2015, 27(36): 5388-5395.

[35] Tan X, Huang XS, Zou YL, et al. Synthesis and characterization of Co-doped brookite titania photocatalysts with high photocatalytic activity. Trans Tianjin Univ, 2018, 24(2): 111-122.

[36] Guo SC, Hu X, Hou Y, et al. Tunable synthesis of yolk-shell porous silicon@carbon for optimizing Si/C-based anode of lithium-ion batteries. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2017, 9(48): 42084-42092.

[37] Xu FY, Na P. String and ball-like TiO₂/rGO composites with high photo-catalysis degradation capability for methylene blue. Trans Tianjin Univ, 2018, 24(3): 272-281.

[38] Li ZJ, Lv W, Zhang C, et al. A sheet-like porous carbon for high-rate supercapacitors produced by the carbonization of an eggplant. Carbon, 2015, 92: 11-14.

[39] Hu X, Jia JC, Wang GX, et al. Reliable and general route to inverse opal structured nanohybrids of carbon-confined transition metal sulfides quantum dots for high-performance sodium storage. Adv Energy Mater, 2018, 8(25): 1801452

[40] Jin RC, Meng M, Zhang SH, et al. CNTs@C@Cu_2−xSe hybrid materials: an advanced electrode for high performance lithium batteries and supercapacitors. Energy Technol, 2018, 6(11): 2179-2187.

[41] Zhao WX, Ci SQ, Hu X, et al. Highly dispersed ultrasmall NiS₂ nanoparticles in porous carbon nanofiber anodes for sodium ion batteries. Nanoscale, 2019, 11(11): 4688-4695.

[42] Hu X, Liu YJ, Chen JX, et al. FeS quantum dots embedded in 3D ordered macroporous carbon nanocomposite for high-performance sodium-ion hybrid capacitors. J Mater Chem A, 2019, 7(3): 1138-1148.

[43] Wang FM, Liu MC, Zhang XB, et al. In situ growth of 3D hierarchical ZnO@Ni _xCo_1−x(OH) _y core/shell nanowire/nanosheet arrays on Ni foam for high-performance aqueous hybrid supercapacitors. Trans Tianjin Univ, 2018, 24(3): 201-211.

[44] Wang Y, Wang CY, Guo HN, et al. A nitrogen-doped three-dimensional carbon framework for high performance sodium ion batteries. RSC Adv, 2017, 7(3): 1588-1592.