Facile Synthesis of Carbon Nanospheres with High Capability to Inhale Selenium Powder for Electrochemical Energy Storage

Abstract

Carbon–selenium composite positive electrode (CSs@Se) is engineered in this project using a melt diffusion approach with glucose as a precursor, and it demonstrates good electrochemical performance for lithium–selenium batteries. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDS analysis are used to characterize the newly designed CSs@Se electrode. To complete the evaluation, electrochemical characterization such as charge–discharge (rate performance and cycle stability), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests are done. The findings show that selenium particles are distributed uniformly in mono-sized carbon spheres with enormous surface areas. Furthermore, the charge–discharge test demonstrates that the CSs@Se cathode has a rate performance of 104 mA h g−1 even at current density of 2500 mA g−1 and can sustain stable cycling for 70 cycles with a specific capacity of 270 mA h g−1 at current density of 25 mA g−1. The homogeneous diffusion of selenium particles in the produced spheres is credited with an improved electrochemical performance.

Keywords

• carbon nanospheres
• selenium
• Li–Se battery