Synthesis of Low-Cost and High-Performance Dual-Atom Doped Carbon-Based Materials with a Simple Green Route as Anodes for Sodium-Ion Batteries
Bin Lu,
Chi Zhang,
Ding-Rong Deng,
Jian-Chun Weng,
Jia-Xi Song,
Xiao-Hong Fan,
Gui-Fang Li,
Yi Li,
Qi-Hui Wu
Affiliations
Bin Lu
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Chi Zhang
School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia, Jalan Sunsuria, Bandar Sunsuria, Sepang 43900, Malaysia
Ding-Rong Deng
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Jian-Chun Weng
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Jia-Xi Song
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Xiao-Hong Fan
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Gui-Fang Li
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Yi Li
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Qi-Hui Wu
Xiamen Key Laboratory of Marine Corrosion and Smart Protective Materials, School of Marin Equipment and Mechanical Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361000, China
Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are promising alternatives to replace lithium-ion batteries as future energy storage batteries because of their abundant sodium resources, low cost, and high charging efficiency. In order to match the high energy capacity and density, designing an atomically doped carbonous material as the anode is presently one of the important strategies to commercialize SIBs. In this work, we report the preparation of high-performance dual-atom-doped carbon (C) materials using low-cost corn starch and thiourea (CH4N2S) as the precursors. The electronegativity and radii of the doped atoms and C are different, which can vary the embedding properties of sodium ions (Na+) into/on C. As sulfur (S) can effectively expand the layer spacing, it provides more channels for embedding and de-embedding Na+. The synergistic effect of N and S co-doping can remarkably boost the performance of SIBs. The capacity is preserved at 400 mAh g −1 after 200 cycles at 500 mA g−1; more notably, the initial Coulombic efficiency is 81%. Even at a high rate of high current of 10 A g−1, the cell capacity can still reach 170 mAh g−1. More importantly, after 3000 cycles at 1 A g−1, the capacity decay is less than 0.003% per cycle, which demonstrates its excellent electrochemical performance. These results indicate that high-performance carbon materials can be prepared using low-cost corn starch and thiourea.
